


The Fox and The Rabbit - Reloaded

by ShippingMammals



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-25
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2018-10-10 08:55:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 41,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10434063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShippingMammals/pseuds/ShippingMammals
Summary: This is a revamped version of the story that is being posted as my heavy hitting editors and I go back through it. Once edits are complete the story will be rolled into one.





	1. After the Concert

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a revamped version of the story that is being posted as my heavy hitting editors and I go back through it. Once edits are complete the story will be rolled into one.

Judy and Nick walked out of the Zootopia stadium. Mammals of all kinds flanked them as the enormous crowd that had come to see Gazelle filtered out.

The bright lights of the marquee still flashed, casting shadows in front of the crowd as it shuffled along through the narrower exits. Mammals talked excitedly about the dazzling concert as they made their way, eventually spilling out in a wave into the parking lot.

Nick had to admit it had been a good concert, and the end production had certainly been something to see. He was not the huge Gazelle fan Judy and Clawhauser were, but it had still been fun. That was not even mentioning the backstage pass they had gotten for a pre-show meetup, either. Even he had been a bit star struck rubbing elbows with the famous singer before the show.

The crowd slowly thinned out as mammals broke off for various parts of the packed lot to their cars or elsewhere, but neither Judy nor he owned cars. They both agreed that in a city like Zootopia, it made much more sense to use the subway or bus. Their run-in with Flash earlier in the day being somewhat of a case in point.

Nick was still floored Flash had been the speeding bandit. They had let his old friend off with a warning, much to the displeasure of Chief Bogo. However, the chief had let it slide when they explained how Flash had helped them in the missing mammal case, and that they owed him one. Having almost always been on the other side of the law, Nick was well aware of how fluid and adaptable said 'law' was at times. Even Judy had employed some of the questionable, at best, tactics herself during the missing mammal case, but he was okay with that.

Judy was in an ebullient mood as they walked out and towards the subway station on the far side of the parking lot. She was skipping along ahead of Nick singing, arms pumping up, "I messed up tonight! I lost another fight!"

Nick smiled and inwardly chuckled as he watched her spin around and hop step backward.

"I still mess up, but I'll just start again!" she sang then stopped abruptly. She spun around, facing away with arms up. "Nick, this was amazing!" she exclaimed, looking up toward the sky. The summer sun had almost set and stars were starting to pop into existence. She was walking backward just in front of him. "Your first day, our first case solved," she said and rolled her eyes and smirked, "Even if it was Flash…. and we got to pal around with Gazelle before that fantastic concert! How cool was that?"

Nick smiled despite himself… or was it a smirk? He honestly had a hard time telling when he was smirking or smiling anymore. It didn't feel like smiling, so he slotted it over to the 'smirk' column. Especially considering the mood he was in.

"Well, I gotta say Carrots, that was pretty cool," he said. He had to admit, it had been a pretty darn good day in general, and yes, getting a backstage pass from Zootopia's biggest pop star was a pretty good cap to his first day as an official police officer. _So why am I feeling so... what?_ he thought. He couldn't put a name to how he was feeling. Giddy came to mind, or anxious. He absentmindedly rubbed at his chest, which seemed to ache any time he was around Judy these days.

 _Just my luck,_ he thought, _best day of my life and I die of a heart attack._ The more he watched his partner hop around to an imaginary beat, watched her ears flop to and fro as she swung her hips, the name for what he was feeling started to form in his head. Despite trying to perpetuate the lie he had so carefully maintained and crafted over those months, he was beginning to understand. He was starting to come to grips with why he was on edge, but tried to tell himself it was still a mystery.

The way Judy turned and grinned at him, how her top front teeth poked out from behind her lips, how she was still wired and full of energy after an amazing show, it was all getting burned into his brain.

And my heart… Ugh, when did I turn into such a softy.

The lies he'd told himself since meeting Judy were crumbling in front of him to the beat of a hit pop song.

Judy was too wrapped up in replaying the concert in her head to notice how lost in thought Nick looked.

He managed to pinpoint when it started to bother him tonight. That darn hip bump during the finale of "Try Everything," he thought. That ever so brief moment when their eyes met. It was more than just that, though. That had just been a catalyst for something else he had been ignoring or, at least, refusing to acknowledge for days. No. Weeks. Tonight, though… tonight, and particularly right now, right this instant, it was rapidly building. It was bordering on panic, and it took all his effort to keep himself calm.

Judy had dropped back beside him, still skipping. She smiled sidelong up at him. She hopped a step closer and gave him a light elbow in the ribs. "I think Gazelle thought you were cute!" she said, slowing her pace to walk beside him.

Nick forced a laugh and rubbed his side theatrically, "Ya think so? Is that what your detective skills told you, Carrots?" he said and stuffed his paws into his pockets, automatically giving her that trademark smirk of his.

Judy shook her head, looking forward. "Nope! That's just what my female skills tell me!" she said then leaned over and stage whispered to him out of the corner of her mouth, "I think she has a thing for predators. I mean, look at all those hunky tigers she surrounds herself with!"

Nick's heart skipped half a step. "Hunky tigers, huh? You a fan of all those teeth and claws, Fluff?" he asked, trying to ooze confidence. He wanted to bury his head in the ground when his voice cracked at the end of the sentence, betraying his faux charm. The fur on his neck stood on end with how direct he thought he was being, but it was a question he desperately wanted an answer to.

"Hmm?" Judy asked, looking up at him. "Oh, heh, I never really thought about it that way." She reached up to one of her ears and gave it a tug, and she could feel her cheeks burn just enough to notice. "I mean, I'm not opposed to them or anything, if that's what you're asking."

Nick could feel himself getting warm under his collar.

"Still, I bet you might have had a shot with her if you'd asked!" Judy continued. "Who knows, sly and courageous might be her type."

Nick forced another what he hoped was a normal sounding laugh, but in his ears, it sounded strained.

"Maybe, but she's not my type," he said distractedly. A slow horror started to build in his mind as he realized what he was going to say next. One part of his mind was howling bloody murder for him to stop, while the part in control of his mouth just kept right on going.

"Don't get me wrong," he said, "she's pretty and all that, but not what I would consider beautiful. Not beautiful like you, anyway." Nick stopped, his ears splaying out and eyes going wide. _Welp, now you've done it Wilde,_ he told himself, _I hope you're happy. There's no taking it back now._

Judy took a couple of more steps before she too stopped and slowly turned her head back towards him with her eyes wide.

The dwindling stream of mammals that still walked in their direction with them parted and flowed around the two of them drawing a few glances. Even though there was a constant low buzz of conversation around them, paws and hooves on the pavement, the sound of cars doors, and engines starting, it seemed like silence.

Judy slowly turned back around to face him directly. "N-Nick?" she said.

To Nick her voice sounded small and... what? Fragile? Hopeful? Frightened? He couldn't tell and just stood there stunned into near inaction. His paw grabbed at his chest again, clenching shirt and fur both. He looked down at his chest. It was almost like he wasn't in his body and was actually watching someone else. "You know," he said quietly, his voice barely above a whisper, "they joke about it, but it actually does hurt."

A look of alarm overtook the shocked expression on Judy's face.

"Nick, are you okay?!" She stepped closer, but Nick stepped back with his other paw coming from of his pocket and held it out to stop her. His expression was unsure and confused.

Judy stopped, seeming equally confused.

"Heartache," Nick explained, his voice a bit stronger this time. He rubbed a paw back over his head and sighed. "I kept trying to ignore it, telling myself it was nothing, or just due to those extra long runs the major made us do," he said with a calm he did not feel, "but... I know what it is. I think I've known what it is for months, and just kept it hidden."

He sighed and pulled at his ears. "I can't do this anymore." His gaze moved from Judy to the marquee of the stadium with all its dazzling lights, but he wasn't seeing them. Instead, he saw events of the past months in his mind. All of them were of Judy, with Judy, or thoughts about Judy.

After they had solved the missing mammals case, Nick had put in his application for the police academy. With Judy's backing and a few pulled strings, he had gotten in. It had taken about two months of bureaucratic nonsense before he was officially accepted, and then another month before the next group of cadets started their training. In that time he and Judy had met up occasionally when schedules allowed.

Nick had still needed to hustle, but not for the need of the money. He had mainly just for something to do, so he kept on doing what he always had. He had to keep his new impending profession hidden from Finnick and others as long as he could too, for obvious reasons.

When time allowed he and Judy had met for lunch a pawful of times to catch up on what each had been doing. They had a couple of after work dinner meet-ups, too. Judy had tales of her job as a rookie cop and plenty of advice on what to expect at the Academy. Nick, however, had had fewer stories. He had always kept the conversation away from his questionable activities while he waited the long weeks for the paperwork to churn through the gears of city government.

Over time, though, their discussions had started to become slowly strange and awkward. Both he and Judy seemed to have an increasingly harder time looking directly at the other. Eyes were always shifting to something else while they talked, with each of them making excuses as to why they had to go. Always some important business to take care of, someone to meet, somewhere they had to be. He never really did, though. He wasn't really sure it was the same with Judy, but he prayed to gods he didn't believe in that it was.

Then, Nick had gone into the Academy. Nine months of long, long days. Study, exercise, training, and more exercise, more training. It had been hard, but not because of the stress or physicality of it. The actual physical part had been pretty easy for him once he got past the first month or so. In fact, he had come to enjoy the rigorous exercise, and the Major had often let him lead the group runs and call out cadence.

What had been almost intolerable, though, was not seeing Judy. Sometimes he had gone weeks without seeing her with only the occasional text or e-mail. There had been rare times he was able to get away from the academy the same time she was free, but those had been precious few and far between.

He turned back to Judy. His gaze searched her wide, confused, and oh so beautiful eyes. He swallowed hard, paw still massaging his chest absently. Slowly, he started to come to his senses, his eyes darting around as his thoughts began to race. He lifted his head, meeting Judy's worried eyes. He cocked his head slightly.

"You know, Fluff, from the first time I met you, there was something I couldn't put my paws on," he began. Images flashed through his mind again. The first time he saw her in the ice cream shop, getting wrangled into the missing mammals case, nearly getting iced by Mister Big, and that look on her face after the press conference when he confronted her. He recalled how much that had hurt him. It wouldn't have hurt the old Nick. It would have just been what, typical? Expected? Par for the course? He didn't know, but coming from that 'dumb bunny' that he hadn't even known for two days, it had felt like he had been stomped on by one of Mister Big's polar bear goons.

The few months after that disastrous news conference were not much more than a blur. He had almost stopped hustling completely, having found it nearly impossible to drum up his normal motivation for scamming mammals out of money or pulling off his myriad of lucrative cons. Even when he had, he had let Finnick take the lead most of the time. Finnick, bless his angry little heart, had tried his best to pull him out of his despondency to little effect and eventually gave up. He smiled inwardly as he remembered what Finnick had told him later. "Man, I was so glad to see that bunny, you have no fuckin' idea."

Then she had come back and found him. He hadn't even known she'd left the force and gone home to BunnyBurrow. He had just been moping around that day, just like he'd done all the previous days that week. Then, he heard her calling for him from the bridge. The elation he felt was unlike anything he had known in years. He'd desperately wanted to jump up and rush up there. He didn't, though. Instead, he panicked, fumbled around, plopped himself down into that ratty chair and tried to act cool just as she had poked her head over the side of the bridge. Walking away from her like that had been one of the hardest things he had ever done in his life.

When she pinned his badge to his chest just a few days ago, the look of swelling pride she gave him filled him with more satisfaction than the bright, crisp set of blues he was wearing ever could. That one simple thing had made it all worthwhile.

It wasn't that he had not had relationships before; he had plenty over the years. Not with any rabbits to be sure, but he had certainly never felt like this towards anyone else. The closest to this was his first, but thinking about it always left him with a sour taste in his mouth. It reminded him of when he'd been muzzled as a kit at his first scouts meeting.

He was done. He was done hiding all this. He didn't care that she was a rabbit. He didn't care that she was much younger than him. He had been willfully blinding himself or ignoring his feelings for months, and he couldn't do it anymore. _I love her,_ he finally admitted to himself, _and I have for a long time. Time to start acting like it._

"Nick I-" Judy started to say when Nick didn't continue, but that brought Nick out of his reverie and he continued talking as if he had never stopped.

"It's funny," he said, his eyes locking with hers again, "I've never been one to believe in fate or destiny. Then I think about all the little events that had to happen for us to meet that day and I have to wonder. If just one had been different, just one, we would never have met." He searched her eyes, grinning as her nose wriggled like it did when her attention was tightly focused. "Just one, Judy," he said.

Judy sucked in a small breath.

Nick never called her Judy. In fact, the only time he recalled using her name was after that plunge at Cliffside, and she had not even heard that. It was always Carrots, Fluff, or Officer Hopps if he was sarcastic, but never Judy. Its use was a bit calculated on his part, but it had the intended effect.

"Nick, I... think about that more than you know," she said after several moments of silence. Her eyes stayed steadfastly focused on his. "It feels like there was so much, I don't know, coincidence? But now, there's…"

"There's what?" he asked.

"There's no other mammal I'd rather be around than you," she finished. Nick thought her indigo eyes shimmered under the moonlight, and the intensity of her gaze forced him to break eye contact.

When what she said registered it nearly derailed his already shaky train of thought. His heart sped up even faster, if that were possible. His mind started running in circles trying to make sense of what was just said. Did what he had just heard mean what he thought it did or was he just making into what he wanted it to mean? A cold dread built in the pit of his stomach.  _This could just a prelude to the dreaded 'I like you as a friend' speech_ , the pessimist in him said, but it didn't _sound_ like it. The dread was quickly replaced by a giddy thrill at the thought that it _did_ mean what he hoped. He groaned and a paw slid to the back of his neck to unconsciously pull at the scruff of looser skin and fur. He blinked. Judy stood there, staring back at him with those wide amethyst eyes. S _ay something, Wilde!_

"You… you do something to me," he said finally, "I don't understand how or why." He let his arm drop and laughed, looking up. "I mean me? Nick Wilde! The first fox police officer in the history of Zootopia, and to top it off, he's fallen for a rabbit? Tell that to anyone a year ago who knows me and they would call you a liar," he said then raised his arms, paws up, "Yet, here I am."

Judy opened her mouth to say something, but no sound would come out as she processed what he’d said. Her ears stood straight up as her heart raced.

He took a step closer to the now silent and frozen Judy. "You're the reason I am here. The reason I became a cop," he said, "I know you know that, but... well, sometimes this all seems like a dream to me." He barked out a nervous little laugh and shrugged, "You make me want to be better than I was, and the heavens help me I want you to be proud of me."

He clenched his jaw. He couldn't believe how sappy he was being. Finnick would give him so much crap if he saw this. This was so not him, or at least had not been him in a very long time. His vision began to swim, and he swallowed, steeling himself for what he was about to say. Now or never, Wilde, now or never.

Judy sniffled just audibly enough for Nick to hear. "Nick, I — of course I'm proud of you! What are you saying? Did you…" she said, before getting very quiet. "Did you do all of this for me?"

"Judy Hopps," he said slowly, unable to stop his voice from cracking just a little, "I love you. I love you, but I am terrified that you don't or can't love me."

Judy's jaw slowly dropped. Her heart, already racing in her chest, beat even faster. Tears started to gather in the corners of her own eyes as she stood there for a long moment, mutely returning Nick's wide-eyed stare. She blinked and closed her mouth, swallowed hard, and stepped forward. She cleared her throat and grabbed Nick's tie. She pulled him down to her as a smile formed on her lips.

"What was that one song Gazelle sung?" she asked, determination clawing its way into her voice. "The one she just finished singing at the end of the show?"

Nick stared at her dumbly, suddenly at a loss for words. "Er, 'Try Everything?'"

She touched her nose to his and looked straight into his eyes for a long second before quietly saying, "Exactly." Then, very slowly, she kissed him.

The ground beneath Nick may as well have vanished from under him. The moment her lips made contact with his, the only thing in his world was how soft she felt against him.

In the distance, an incredulous gruff voice could be heard.

"Is that Officer Hopps and Wilde?" it said.

There was a brief pause, then another voice spoke.

"O… M… GOODNESS!"

* * *

**Authors Note:**

_**03/25/2017 - For new readers this is important.** _ Long story short a year after I started this nonsense I, along with my team of editors, are going back through all the early chapters and revising them as my editors were mostly non-existent up to about chapter 5 or 6. My prime editor, Mord, came on board at chapter 12 - and he's an actual editor in RL!

Currently chapters 1-3 have been re-edited/re-vamped by both my editors and myself while chapters 4-6 are just me. Beyond that you may see some minor continuity errors and a shift in quality and or style - Although the outside of the grammar mechanics chapters past about 3 level out quite a bit in the story/sappy Nick department. For a more in depth explanation see the foreword in chapter 18.


	2. Wicked Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a revamped version of the story that is being posted as my heavy hitting editors and I go back through it. Once edits are complete the story will be rolled into one.

Judy broke the kiss, opening her eyes. The dazed look on Nick's face was too much, and she couldn't help letting out a giddy little giggle. She was so wrapped up in the moment that she didn't notice the large presence looming over them both. The unmistakable sound of Chief Bogo clearing his throat interrupted the pair's reverie.

Judy and Nick turned their heads and looked up, although Nick was still barely coherent from the kiss.

Chief Bogo glowered down at them with a scowl on his face. Both he and Clawhauser stood there. They, along with a few others, had also gotten the backstage passes from the singer. Unlike Nick and Judy, they were still in uniform.

"You two, my office, 7 a.m. tomorrow," he said then added in that forceful staccato way where each word felt like a slap, "Do not be late." His eyes pinned them each with a brief glare before he gave a bullish snort and walked away.

Clawhauser stood there a moment longer with his paws balled up against his cheeks like he always did when excited. He opened his mouth as if he was about to say something, but all that came out was a delighted squeal before he darted after the Chief.

Nick's expression slowly changed to one of horror. "The entire ZPD is going to know about this within the hour…" he said, his voice monotone.

At that moment, the ZPD was the last thing on Judy's mind. She scanned over Nick; small things about him she'd never noticed before were now apparent. The noticed how his eyes seemed to glow dimly in the moonlight, and how the whiskers on the right side of his nose were just a bit longer than those on the left. She thought it matched the subtle lopsidedness of his smile, which hadn't really left his face since their lips had separated.

The more she looked, the more the fire in her chest burned. She tightened her grip on his tie and brought his face close to hers again.

"Don't care!" Judy said, tugging Nick by the tie to get him going, "C'mon…"

Nick stumbled after her, nearly tripping over his own feet. She let his tie go as he got his legs working. "W-where are we going?" he asked with trepidation. It can't be this easy, his half-stunned mind thought.

Judy looked back at him. Nick's expression, his entire posture really, was one of someone concussed or sleepwalking. She grinned. It was rather cute.

"Your place." she said, "It's closer." Am I really doing this? she asked herself. Yes. Yes, I am. She realized she was not exactly thinking straight, but indecisiveness had never really been her style. She knew this was going to be... something. Trouble, exciting, and new… definitely something new.

"Wait, what?!" Nick blurted out and hurried his pace to catch up with her. He looked down, his ears still splayed out and his eyes wide."Judy I... we... I mean…" he stammered, wringing his paws.

Judy stopped and turned to him and Nick stumbled to a stop. She gathered her scattered thoughts for a moment and took a deep breath to steel herself.

"Look Nick. I don't know..." she said waving a paw, "what this is. What we are, or what is going to happen." She swallowed and took another breath, reaching up to touch the side of his muzzle. "But... I know what I want and… I want you. You and your pretty fur, your smug face, your sharp teeth — everything. You don't have to be terrified that I don't… or can't love you. I do." The emotion was getting too high again, and it threatened to overwhelm her. She rapidly blinked her eyes, abruptly turned, and continued walking.

Nick followed behind her dumbly. "You think my fur is pretty?" he asked.

Judy couldn't restrain a giggle. "Out of all of that, that's what you choose to focus on?" she asked.

The corners of Nick's mouth turned upwards. "Well, no one has ever told me my fur is pretty before! Handsome, maybe, but not pretty."

"Is that an issue?" Judy asked. She wheeled to face him and brought her paw to his face, lightly caressing his fur.

Although it was impossible for a red fox to blush, Nick was sure he was based on the warmth blooming in his cheeks. "N-no," he choked out, taken aback by their sudden closeness again. "I kind of like it."

"And what about the rest of what I said?"

Nick's breath caught in his throat as he replayed what she'd just said in his head. His muzzle worked, but he was having a hard time finding any words. He eventually let out a long breath and ran his hands over his head and ears to his neck, bewildered. "I... I just thought this would be harder," he said. That was an ironic thought considering what had just happened and how much he had had to wind himself up to confess his feelings to Judy. "I didn't think you'd feel the same way."

Judy looked up at him. She could feel her heart hammering in her chest as the words pouring from her mouth were settling in the air around them. "This isn't easy Nick," she said, her voice on the brink of breaking. She held up a shaking paw. "Does this look like I think this is easy? I'm not even 100 percent sure what I'm feeling, but I know it's making me happy. You're making me happy," she said and resumed walking as abruptly as she had stopped, "Now come on before I lose my nerve."

Nick looked after her blankly. Is this really happening?

"Sometime tonight, Wilde!" Judy called without turning her head.

A sudden silly grin spread across this muzzle. _This really is happening! Hot damn!_ he thought and almost barked with elation. "Yes ma'am!" he said and darted after Judy and fell in silently beside her.

They walked in silence to the station and luckily didn't have to wait more than a minute before the Animalia Line train slid in. They were far from alone; the station was full of others leaving the concert, too. They bumped and jostled their way into the train and somehow managed to score a set of seats directly across from the doors.

The doors stood open for a bit longer before a pleasant female voice said, "Please stand clear, doors are closing. Please stand clear, doors are closing." A moment later the doors smoothly closed, and the train began to move. The motion rocked them lightly as the train slid out into the darkening night.

Judy had been right — Nick did live fairly close as far as the subway went. However, with the frequent stops, it would take a good twenty minutes to reach the station near his apartment. She scooted closer to him,snuggled right up against his side, and leaned her head against his arm. Her small paw sought out his larger one and clasped it, fingers intertwining.

Nick briefly squeezed her paw in his and looked down at her. The shock had worn off, replaced by one of wonder and a goofy grin. He was nervous, but with the revelation of Judy's mutual interest, his male mind was leading him down some new and interesting paths.

Judy smiled up at him. "What?" she asked innocently, "Is this really so hard to believe?" Judy honestly wasn't exactly sure what was going on herself. She had never been in love before, but this certainly felt like what she thought it should feel like.. She couldn't put a finger on exactly when she thought these feelings had started stirring in her, but she knew the missing mammal investigation had changed her. The moments after that horrible press conference kept coming to mind when Nick had called her out on her own unintentional prejudice. She was still overcome with shame every time she thought about her reaction and how she'd reached for that Fox spray. That look of betrayal from Nick had made her ache. Even a year later, it still hurt.

 _It wasn't love then, but it had been something,_ she thought. Something that built more with every moment she had spent with him since. She'd thought it was so strange how they had just clicked the way they had and become such fast friends, given how different they were. Now, though, it didn't seem strange at all. Now that she'd felt Nick's lips against her own, it almost seemed obvious. Natural, even.

Nick turned his head up and took in a breath. He held it for a bit and then let it out in a long sigh. His paw squeezed Judy's' again. He had regained more of his usual self since the parking lot, but it was easy to see how nervous he still was.

"Honestly…" he said, "Yeah, Fluff. It really is." His initial excitement just minutes ago had begun to give way to uncertainty.

Nick looked down at Judy again in a way that made her inwardly squirm. It was the same look of wonder that he initially had in the parking lot, with his ears splayed out and his eyes wide. As she watched, she could see doubt creeping into his expression.

"I…" he started, before swallowing and looking away. "I've never really been very good at… relationships," he said. He brought his free paw up and rubbed his neck. "I mean, don't get me wrong here, Carrots, it's not that I haven't had girlfriends or relationships before." He gave her a sidelong more customary smirk. "I am a handsome specimen of a fox, irresistible to ladies of all species, but-"

Judy interrupted with a snort and rolled her eyes.

Nick grinned and lifted his head back up. "But seriously, I, well, they never tended to, um, end well." His ears folded down against his head as his voice took on a slightly dejected tone.

Judy lifted her head up to him. It was Judy's turn to squeeze his paw back. "Why?" she asked quietly.

Nick didn't respond for several long seconds. He stared out the windows of the doors opposite him and watched another car pass in a blur . He took in a breath and opened his muzzle to speak, but paused. He slowly gave an exaggerated shrug. "Con artist doesn't exactly scream stability or stellar father figure, does it?" he said simply.

Judy started to say something, but Nick continued in a falsetto voice, waving his other paw in the air. "Oh, so what do you do Mister Wilde?" Nick said and dropped his voice to normal, putting a paw to his chest in a dramatic pose, "Who me? Why madam, I scam folks out of money! Would you like to buy a pawpscicle?" He leaned back against the seat and grunted. "Obviously, it wasn't as simple as that," he said, "I did actually try a couple of times, but my heart wasn't really into it. Never was, I guess. That is, well, was, the problem."

Judy cocked an eyebrow. "I sense a story here," she said.

Nick groaned and leaned his head back and stared up. He took a big breath and puffed it out. "Well," he said, lowering his head back down, "If I'm going all full disclosure tonight... there was this one girl." His eyes taking on that distant stare again and a small grin spreading across his muzzle. "Svetlana…" he sucked in a breath and blew it out noisily. "I was what, sixteen? Seventeen?" he said, "I had dropped out of school way before this, but I still ran with some of my old friends."

He rubbed the underside of his muzzle with his free paw and narrowed his eyes in recollection. "She was an exchange student. She was a fox, too, but an arctic fox, and her fur was this crazy silver-white color I had never seen before. I fell for her the moment I saw her." The grin on his muzzle broadened and his eyes went distant. "I tell you what, Carrots," he said, "I'd never seen a more beautiful mammal in my life!"

Judy raised her eyebrows and cleared her throat. "Nick," she said in a flat tone, "I may be wrong here, but when a doe is dragging you back to your apartment, I doubt it's customary to drool over your ex-girlfriends."

Nick blinked and looked down at her. "Er, right, I suppose you have a point. But you asked, Fluff! Besides, I haven't gotten to the part where she dumped me and left me an emotional wreck, yet."

Judy's ears drooped. "Oh, uh, sorry," she said, "I was just teasing..."

Nick winked. "I know, Fluff, it's fine," he said then turned away, "now where was I..."

Judy was starting to get a pretty good feeling of where this was going. "Nick, you don't have to tell me-" she started but he cut her off.

"No, I do. If we're doing this," he said and paused, looking back down at her, "we are doing this, right? We didn't get mugged in the parking lot, and I'm not actually laying concussed back there?"

Judy snorted out a little giggle. "Do I need to pinch you?" she asked.

Nick held out his arm. "Would you?" he asked.

Judy laughed quietly but reached over with her other arm and give Nick a firm pinch.

"Ow!" Nick complained, "even your fingers are freakishly strong!"

Judy stuck her tongue out at him. "Wait until I pinch you with my toes."

"Okay, that's just weird, rabbit," Nick muttered.

Judy giggled and bumped her head against Nick's arm. "So, this gorgeous fox girl from your past...?

"Mmm," Nick hummed, "right, right." He inhaled deeply again. "Anyways, I fell for her hard. Dumb, stupid young love, you know?," he said, "Ugh, I was such a romantic back then. I thought she was the one. That, or it was all some kind of mystical destiny. She was beautiful, exotic, and she liked me. Or, well, I thought she did."

He paused and seemed to wrestle with something for a few moments. "Well, I guess she did. Just not in the way I wanted. It just… in the end, she played me like I played everybody else. I told her I loved her and would do anything for her and — and she just…" He paused and drew his lips back in a grimace, sucking in a breath between his teeth. "Ugh, gods, almost twenty years later, it still stings," he said, "But she just laughed at me."

Judy winced. "Ouch," she said. She was no expert at relationships by any stretch of the word, but you didn't need to be to understand that kind of hurt.

"Yeah," Nick said, grim and serious. He continued, "She obviously didn't know what she was doing. Most likely jumped in front of a train or something when she realized she'd let all of this," he said, dramatically gesturing down his body, "Slip through her fingers."

Judy rolled her eyes. "I'm sure," she said.

Nick chuckled softly. "But seriously, the day she was going to leave, I tried to stop her at the station and professed my love like some idiot," he said. He shook his head at the memory. He hadn't thought about all this in any detail in many years, and now that he was, he found it hard to believe the memories in his head were actually his. He wanted to reach back through time and smack his younger self.

"So, I asked her to stay here and not go back… to stay in with me in the wonder of Zootopia!" he continued said making a grand sweeping gesture with his free paw. "And," he continued, drawing the word out, "She laughed at me and said… oh, what did she say?" he asked himself and he tried to remember the exact words, as time had let them fade some in his memory. "Something like - oh Nick, you so cute and fun, but I could never stay with grubby little red fox like you."

"Ow," Judy said with another grimace, "That... okay, that is cold."

Nick chuckled. "Well, she was an arctic fox," he said then sighed as his right paw went back to up to rub the back of his neck again, "What really did me in was the contempt." He chuckled. "My ego did not take it well, at all."

He huffed and shook his head. He didn't want to get into details. "The point is, it colored my relationships for a while," he said and grinned, "I was sixteen, remember? Just had my heart broken. Everything sucks?"

Judy quirked an eyebrow at the expectant look was giving her, and thought about the question. The answer was almost obvious. She cocked her head at him. "You didn't…"

Nick started sniggering and nodded his head. "Turned into a total emo kid," he said.

Judy rolled her eyes. "Oh dear," she said, "wear all black? Dye your fur?"

Nick grinned and nodded. "All around my eyes," he replied and traced around his eyes with his fingers then dragged them down through his fur, "And all down here like black tears."

Judy put a paw over her muzzle and giggled. "Please tell me you have pictures."

"No," Nick said with emphasis, "not that I know of." He puffed his cheeks out, his eyes darting around unfocused as he got back on track. "Ugh, I'm rambling," he said, "Basically, I haven't, well, dated in a long time. When I did, it rarely ended well."

Judy raised an eyebrow. "So you're saying you suck at dating?"

"I suck at dating," Nick confirmed. He then ducked his head down to her. "This is a cue for you run away screaming, Carrots," he said in a conspiratorial whisper.

Judy let out a little laugh. "Well, I'm kind of the opposite," she said and cocked her head as she looked at him, "Would you believe I've never had a boyfriend?"

Nick's head jerked back. "Seriously?" he asked in surprise.

Judy nodded and raised her free paw, "Carrot Scouts honor." She shrugged her shoulders, "I just, well, you know how driven I am. I just never had time or desire, I guess." She puffed her cheeks out in a sigh, "Not that I didn't have plenty of opportunities. Gods know Billy Hopperson tried his best. Anyways, now I've made it. Here I am, living the dream I've had for as long as I can remember a-and I don't know if it's enough anymore." She looked up at him and smiled, "But with you, it just might be."

Nick looked at her for a long moment, his eyes fixed on hers.

"Excuse me?" A voice said. Both of them were too lost in each other to notice. There was an ahem, then the voice spoke again, a bit louder, "Excuse me, hey lovebirds!"

That caught Nick and Judy's attention, and both turned to the source of the voice.

They realized they had gotten an audience. The car was not packed, but it was certainly wasn't empty. Most of the passengers were wearing Gazelle merchandise or shirts. Nick and Judy hadn't been shouting, but anyone sitting nearby could have eavesdropped if they tried.

The insides of Judy's ears had started to heat up.

Judy and Nick were sitting on seats directly across from the doors, but in the first row of seats towards the back sat an elderly couple with their arms interlocked, and had been on the train when they had sat down.

The word 'octogenarian' came to Nick's mind.

One of the things that grabbed Judy's attention, though, was the fact that the male was a grizzled, old, gray wolf and the female was an equally gray and much smaller sheep. Judy blinked. The resemblance was superficial at best, but she still reminded Judy of Bellwether. The mirror they were was not lost on her either. _A wolf and a sheep, and a fox and a bunny,_ she thought.

It was the wolf who had spoken, and he was grinning from ear to ear. "You two are the first rabbit and fox cops, ain'tchya?" He asked in his distinctly city accent. "I remember seein' you two in the news. 'least that's what the wife here tells me."

"Uhh, yes sir, we are," Nick answered.

The little ewe leaned over and said to the wolf, "I told you so."

The wolf clucked his tongue and waved his free paw in a shushing gesture at the ewe before turning back to Nick and Judy. He eyed them intently for a long moment,

Judy began to feel her ears burn again.

The wolf turned his attention to Nick, "Ya love her?" he asked.

The bluntness question surprised them both.

Judy was sure the insides of her ears were turning a bright pink now, and Nick stammered for a moment as he looked down at Judy. Slowly, he regained his composure, and a slow smile spread on his muzzle.

Judy looked up at Nick and saw the look on his face. She'd seen it before in the debriefing room when Nick was certain he'd get under Bogo's skin, or when he'd slide over the hood of their cruiser while on patrol to impress her. The utter confidence Nick could exude made her heart swell, but also made her want to squirm in her seat.

Nick turned back to the old wolf. "Absolutely," Nick said slowly and with certainty.

The old wolf nodded with a grunt before turning to Judy, "And you love him?" he asked, nodding his head toward Nick.

Judy smiled up at Nick and nodded, "I do," she said, squeezing his paw in hers.

The wolf nodded again. "Good, that's important," he said, "But what's a more important question is... do ya like each other?"

The question took both Nick and Judy by surprise They looked at each other, puzzled, before looking back to the wolf, who chuckled at them.

"Ahh, kids," he said. He looked down to the ewe for a moment and smiled patting her on the knee, and the old ewe looked back up at with obvious love and affection. The wolf looked back up and continued.

"Take some advice from an old predator-prey couple," he said, "Love is a great, wonderful thing, but it ain't everything. Ya gotta like each other, because when this love you two are feelin'," he waggled a pointing finger back and forth at them, "Simmers for a while, you're gonna have to genuinely like each other. When that comes, and it will come, trust me, and you two find you still want to be around each other, foibles, faults and all, you're golden." He said this last with authority and a sweep of his paw as if smoothing something out.

Judy's eyes went unfocused as the comment did make her think. _Did she like Nick? Duh, what do you think genius,_ she thought, _If you didn't like him you wouldn't even be here._

However, she admitted that she didn't really know Nick as well as she'd like. There was still a lot about her partner, hidden under the cracks in his smug, too-cool armor, that she hadn't seen. She did like being around him, though. He was funny, charming, and under it all, he had a big heart.

Judy tried to be rational about the rush of events in the last 20 minutes, though. She knew what she was feeling, especially right now, was rush of hormones and desire. She was also aware that it was very likely clouding her judgment. _Do I care, though?_ she thought.

"Ahh," the old wolf said, waving a paw at them and smiling, "You'll figure it out."

Nick smiled and looked down to Judy. That look again. He pulled her paw up to his muzzle and kissed the back of it gently, the light touch standing the fur on her spine up.

"Yeah," he said, "Yeah, I think we will."

They sat for the rest of the trip in silence and holding paws, each of them lost in their own thoughts.

As the train pulled into their destination, Judy furrowed her brow and turned to Nick.

"Wait, you dropped out of school?" she exclaimed.

The old wolf laughed.

The tightness in Judy's chest increased as Nick unlocked the door to his apartment and stepped aside to let her pass. She walked in, looking around the dark interior with curiosity. This was one of the things about Nick she didn't have much knowledge of. While she knew where he lived, she had never been inside his apartment until now.

Nicked flipped a light switch and Judy's eyes widened.

She hadn't known what to expect, but she definitely didn't expect the place to look like it was out of some high-end furniture store display. She realized Nick hadn't been kidding when he said he'd been making $200 a day hustling. She had to wonder if that number was on the low end now.

The decor was warm, and the furniture dark and plush. Against one wall was a large, very expensive looking television that rivaled the monstrosity her father had mounted in the burrow's main hall a few years ago. Below the TV sat an entertainment center with an equally expensive looking receiver, complete with game console and sound system. The whole place made her feel embarrassed for the paper thin walled hovel she still lived in. In fact, she'd expected something similar, given the state of the neighborhood Nick lived in. The room was fairly large, however and the spacing gave the room a spartan feel regardless of the nice furniture.

"Huh…" she said as she slowly turned around, looking at everything, "I expected it to be smaller and messier."

"Gee, thanks," Nick said wryly, "You really know how to compliment a guy."

"How can you afford all this?" She asked in wonder.

Nick shrugged. "I can't," he said, "Not anymore anyways. Used to be able to when I was… um, pursuing perfectly legal freelance work, but on what we get paid now? Nah. The rent is still cheap, though." He closed and locked the door behind him. "Just because the neighborhood is old and run down doesn't mean the inside has to be."

Judy didn't say anything, nor did Nick.

Judy could feel the tension building in the air, like the feeling before a thunderstorm. They were here. This had been her idea, and now she was at a loss as what to do next. She swallowed hard; these were completely uncharted waters for her. Everything she knew about romance and dating came from novels or the TV. Her one experience ten years ago with Billy hardly counted, either.

She was facing away from Nick and found that she could not turn around. She eyed the stereo. It had a little dock on top of it, the kind that would fit her Ipawd. She fished in her pocket and pulled the little device out. She set it into the dock, which automatically turned the stereo system on. She hit the button on the receiver, then flipped the Ipawd screen and found the playlist she was looking for.

While she tended to listen to more modern pop stylings, she kept a few of her dad's favorite songs on hand, and pulled up a slow, acoustic western song. Gently, a minor G came through the speakers, and she started to sway her body with the music.

The song worked to heighten her own building feelings of need and urgency. The singer entered the song, crooning about obsession and love. She'd chosen it intentionally.

She felt Nick come up behind her, his arms hesitantly sliding down over her shoulders to her chest. She wrapped her arms around his, hugging them to her as she swayed her hips. She rubbed back against him lightly just as the chorus broke.

Nick pressed up against her and started to follow her movements.

Judy rubbed her head against one of Nick's arms as the pair moved in sync with one another.

She turned slowly around in his arms, looked up at him, and started to quietly sing along with the lyrics. She reached her small paw up to caress the side of Nick's muzzle. Although it had been a long time since she'd listened to the song, the lyrics had never left her. She turned her head and pressed it to his front, rubbing her cheek against him.

Nick lightly cupped her head against his front with one paw while his other slid down and pressed against her back. They moved slowly, dancing around the room. Nick had taken the lead, and Judy found it effortless to follow him.

Nick pushed Judy back some and tilted her head up with one paw and started to sing along with the song now himself, and the two found a home in the harmony they made together.

Judy smiled up at him and let out a choked little laugh. She brought a paw up to rub the tears that were building in the corners of her eyes.

"You like Chris Ibex too?" she asked, her voice a mixture of high emotion and laughter. Nick thought it was the kind of tone a mammal talked in when they didn't know if they wanted to laugh or cry.

"Carrots," he said, stroking her cheek,"I got every album they've ever put out… I've still got the ticket stub from the last time he was in Zootopia."

Judy giggled. "You know, my dad introduced me to him. I still kind of think he's oldies stuff."

Nick huffed, but maintained his grin. "Well, your dad has good taste then."

Judy groaned and pressed her forehead against his chest, her paws clenching and pulling him tighter. It suddenly struck her how… absurd the entire situation was. Here she was, a doe from small town whose greatest ambition was to go to the big city and be a cop, who grew up scared and distrustful of foxes, who somehow talked one crazy fox into being a cop, who helped that fox become her partner, and she was falling in love with him.

No, not falling in love, Judy thought, I think I'm already there.

And now they were dancing in his apartment less than an hour after he'd confessed to her. She choked out a laugh; the sound was brittle and threatened to break down into sobs.

Nick's paw rubbed her back gently.

"What's wrong?" he asked quietly.

"This is!" she said, sniffling loudly. She shrugged her shoulders and rubbed her eyes and nose with one paw again,"This is all crazy! You... me... this whole crazy city full of crazy animals... and..." she trailed off, unable find any more words.

Nick tipped her head up with a finger under her chin."I can't say you're wrong," he said, "If you had told me a year ago I would be standing here a bonafide police officer, and in love with a crazy rabbit girl from the country..." he trailed off and just chuckled. He shook his head as his eyes went distant for a second at the thought. He then focused his gaze back on her.

"Well, I don't know what I would have said, but I'm happy I got here," he finished.

His expression was different now, one Judy had not seen yet. She wondered what it was before it hit her. It was an expression of love. It was a look no one had directed her way before. Something snapped in her then, and she growled in a very un-rabbit like manner. She hopped up and wrapped her short but powerful legs around Nick's waist.

Nick blinked, eyes going wide as she leaned up and whispered hotly in his ear, "Bedroom... now." The tone demanded no argument.

"Yes, Officer Hopps," Nick breathed, his own voice now strained and husky as he pressed his muzzle into her neck fur. He walked backward, wrapping his arms around and carrying her as she clung to him.

Judy buried her muzzle in his neck, inhaling his scent and nibbling at his fur. She groaned and leaned back, pulling and tugging on his tie as he made his unsteady way down the hall with her, bumping and then rolling them against the wall.

Nick nibbled back down her neck, eliciting a groan from her as he gently bit the flesh between neck and shoulder.

Judy dropped the tie and then quickly pulled her shirt up and off, dropping that on the floor as well as they finally made it to the bedroom.


	3. A Bit More than Bargained for

Judy drifted between sleep and wakefulness with her body pressed up against Nick's side. She had wrapped herself around one of his arms, hugging it close to her while her cheek was pressed against his shoulder.

Nick lay on his back, soundly asleep and snoring lightly.

Judy's internal alarm was going off, however, and she cracked an eye open. Morning light filtered in through the window next to the bed; the warm and golden glow hadn't been deterred by the apartments and warehouses that surrounded Nick's apartment. She blinked and yawned. She shook Nick's arm lightly as she rubbed her cheek against him.

"Nick…" she said, her voice bleary with the last vestiges of what little sleep she had gotten, "Nick, wake up."

Nick inhaled deeply and swallowed. "Mmm?"

"What time is it?" Judy asked. She winced as she stretched one leg, vaguely wondering why it was sore.

Nick didn't react for several moments, but eventually opened his eyes and lifted his head to look over Judy at the bright digital clock on the night stand. He thumped his head back down and closed his eyes.

"Six," he started, but the words stretched out into a yawn, "Mmmph… twenty-five."

Judy made a little 'mmm' sound of her own as she snuggled against his arm then froze. Her eyes snapped open.

"6:25?" she said, her voice rising in panic. She shook Nick's arm hard, "Nick, get up! We have to go!"

Nick grunted and cracked one eye to look sidelong at her. "Why? We have over an hour. The station is only a ten-minute walk from here," he said muzzily and brought his other paw up to rub at his face.

"Bogo," Judy said flatly. "7:00 a.m. sharp, remember?"

Nick's paw stopped the rubbing motion. "Oh…"

Judy groaned in exasperation. "And I don't have my uniform!" she squeaked, her grip tightening on Nick.

"We didn't think this through very well, did we?" Nick said rhetorically.

Judy didn't comment. Instead she quickly sat up, but only made it halfway before her abdomen exploded in pain. She yelped; her paws flew to her belly as she flopped back down. Her stomach, sides, and rump hurt to touch even with her own paws.

"Ow, ow… oh my gods what did you do to me?" she whined. She choked out a dry sob as she tensed at the shooting pain in her lower body.

Nick, his one paw still over his eyes where it had stopped, lifted his other paw with one finger extended. "I did not do anything to you did not request... several times," he said.

Judy grunted and elbowed him, "If you had what I had in me last night, you'd be wincing, too. Now shut it and help me get up," she muttered.

Nick's ears perked and he turned his head to look at her.

"Wait, you really need help?" he asked. Judy swatted at him with a paw.

"Yehehehesss!" she cried. She tried to sit up again with one paw clutching at her stomach.

Nick shifted and winced himself, discovering he too was a bit sore, but he thought Judy seemed worse off by far. He leaned over and gently helped her up to sit on the edge of the bed. Nick's concern grew and when she panted a few times, rubbing at her belly.

"Do… do we need to take you to a doctor?" he asked earnestly as his mind started helpfully supplying him with possibilities that would make a hypochondriac proud. Or blush. Or both.

Judy slowly stood up with a grunt of pain. "No," she said, her voice strained, "I'm… just not used to having that... that thing jabbed in and out of me! It's too big!" Nick relaxed and settled back down, propping his muzzle up on a paw while he watched the very naked rabbit take a few tentative steps.

"Gotta say, being 'too big' is a new problem for me. Besides, I didn't hear you complaining last night. Just saying," he said and fished something orange out from under his pillow.

The noise of the pair's favorite carrot recorder pen rewinding filled the room. Judy froze as the tinny sound of her own voice replaced it and began to play.

"Oh gods, Nick, yes! Nnnguh! I can take it! Harder!"

Judy very slowly turned her head to Nick. Her mouth was open just enough for her to bare her buck teeth, and her pupils nearly vanished to pinpricks as she tried desperately to bore a hole through Nick's head with her eyes. Nick was no stranger to that look. In his experience, it usually said 'I am going to kill you!'

Nick had that, in Judy's opinion, equal parts infuriating and endearing smirk on this face. "I just wanted to see the look on your face one time," he said and thumbed the erase button.

Judy released the tension coiling inside her when she saw Nick hit erase. "You are incorrigible!" she said.

"I consider it one of my most charming character traits," Nick replied with a self-satisfied wink.

Judy rolled her eyes and turned back around and looked down at her panties and shorts in a pile on the floor.

Unfortunately, from Nick's point of view at least, bending over seemed to be out of the question at present.

Judy put a paw on the bed to steady herself, then gingerly started to try and pick up each item of clothing with her toes. Nick chuckled, and Judy made an irritated sound.

"Shut up... it isn't funny!" she snapped, but without much venom.

"Oh, I would beg to differ," Nick said, still ogling her bare rump and that cute little tail of hers.

"Ugh, just… shut up. Stop looking at my butt and get out of bed, we have to move," she grumbled.

Nick sighed and slid over to stand as well. He grimaced as he did, taking a few moments to stretch. He arched his back as he watched Judy manage to pick up the items with her toes without falling over and held them in her paws.

"Where is my shirt?" she asked, searching the floor.

"In the hall," Nick replied.

"Right… hall," Judy said and shuffled arthritically out the open bedroom door.

"Where's your bathroom?" she called a few seconds later.

Before Nick could answer Judy said, "Never mind…. I see it," and shuffled back into view as she made her way down the hall.

"Nicky, my boy," he said under his breath while walking over to pick up his neatly pressed uniform from where it hung on a hanger on the closet door handle, "You are one smooth operator."

* * *

 

Judy closed the door to the bathroom and looked around. She felt like she was entering some secret antechamber full of Nick. She was reminded of a conversation overheard in the locker room one day where Avanaco had said, 'You can tell a lot about guy on how he keeps his bathroom. You just gotta see it when he doesn't know you're coming over. If he knows yer comin' over it'll be all neat and spotless.'

Judy took a few steps in. The recalled conversation turned her eye critical.

Like the rest of the apartment, it was modern and overall fairly well-kept. While the living room had been all warm tones and dark furniture, the bathroom was all white, chrome, and modern. It certainly wasn't spotless and could use a good cleaning, but it wasn't filthy, either.

 _It just looks... lived in,_ Judy thought. Regardless, it was miles beyond the communal situation she grew up with, not to mention what passed for 'accommodations' at the Pangolin Arms. Her apartment complex wasn't dirty, though; if there was something Mrs. Armadillo was, it was fastidious, and the gods help those who didn't help keep things clean. Judy thought the restrooms there still looked like they hadn't been renovated in a hundred years.

 _Well_ , she thought as she looked around,  _It could be worse._

She resisted the urge to snoop around some; she knew they didn't have time. She carried on with her own pressing business, groaning as she pulled herself up onto the toilet to relieve herself. She hissed quietly and gingerly rubbed her belly with a paw. She shifted her paw lower and winced. The subject of Nick's ministrations last night was extremely sore, and even peeing burned a little bit.

"What did you expect," she muttered to herself, "He's twice your size. Count yourself lucky you can still walk."

"What's that?" Nick called from the hall, apparently standing close by on the other side of the door.

"Nothing!" she replied a bit too quickly. Her ears started burning again, a trend Judy hoped would stop soon. Nick didn't respond. Instead, she heard him softly start whistling. Her ears burned even hotter when she realized it was the song from previous night.

She finished her business without managing to fall in, hopped down, and flushed. Her muscles were loosening up, but the omnipresent aches refused to budge. She hadn't been this sore since after her first muscle failure PT at the academy, and she figured this was even worse than that. Everything from her stomach down throbbed with every heartbeat. If she hadn't known any better, she would have thought she'd been hit by a truck. _A soft, russet, and warm truck,_ she thought fondly. As beat up and tired as she felt, she had to concede the soreness wasn't all bad. Painful and aching, but a part of her deep down felt good.

She looked longingly at the shower, but knew she had no time for that. Instead, she started getting dressed as quickly as she could.

Once clothed, she looked down at herself and sighed. Her shirt and shorts were beyond rumpled. She tried without much luck to smooth them out as best she could, then looked to the sink. Her ears fell. She could just see over the lip of the backsplash, her tired, sunken eyes eyes staring back at her in the mirror. She looked around and spied a small trash can to the side of the sink, the kind with chrome top that flipped up when you stepped on a pedal. She grabbed it and dragged it around to the front to use as a makeshift platform to stand on.

"You need a stepstool in here!" she called out through the door.

"Duly noted," Nick called back, "Does this mean you'll be over here often then?"

Judy paused one foot on the top of the trash can. That giddy tingle in her chest and stomach from the previous night returned.

"Do you want me to be?" she asked.

"Absolutely," Nick replied with emphasis and without any hesitation.

Judy smiled as that giddy warmth spread through her entire body. She stepped up on top of the can with a pained grunt. The small trash can wasn't made to support any weight, and she threw her arms went out as she nearly toppled onto the floor. The combination of her sore body and improvised should-not-be-used-as-a-stool trash can nearly causing her to land face first on the tile, but she caught the edge of the sink and steadied herself. She sighed.

Now able to see herself in the mirror her ears drooped. Her fur was a ruffled mess. She reached in and turned on the water, let it get as hot as she could bear, and leaned in. She splashed herself several times before turning the faucet off, rubbing her face vigorously before starting to smooth it out her fur when Nick spoke up from the other side of the door.

"What are you, er, we, going to do about your uniform?" he asked.

Judy had already been thinking about this in the back of her mind. She picked up a brush, loaded with fox fur, that lay on the back side of the sink and used it to brush her head, neck, and arms as quickly as she could.

"There's no way to get to my place and to the station in time," she said, trying to pat down a particularly stubborn patch of fur on her cheek, "But my dress blues are in my locker."

"Oh," Nick said dryly, "that won't look strange at all."

Judy rolled her eyes and set the brush down; her fur was as good as she was going to get it. She hopped down with another wince and stepped over to whip open the door.

Nick was lounging against the wall idly whistling and swinging his uniform from a hangar, which Judy noticed was pressed and crisp. Nick was also quite naked, but after last night, it hardly fazed her.

"Do you have a better idea?" she snapped as she marched by him.

Nick pushed himself off the wall and moved into the bathroom.

"Nope!" he said. A familiar smirk adorned his muzzle as he closed the door.

"Foxes." Judy huffed.

* * *

 

Nick closed the bathroom door behind himself and hung his uniform on the hook mounted on its back. He answered his own pressing call to nature and stepped up to the sink, sliding the trash can out of the way with his foot. He took a deep breath, exhaled, and examined himself in the mirror. He didn't look any better than Judy had; his fur was mussed and stuck out at odd angles. He picked up his brush, but paused as he brought it up. A grin crept across his face as he noticed the small gray furs caught in the bristles. He started to brush himself down with more urgency than he'd allowed himself to show Judy. He hated to admit it, but he didn't want to be late, either.

Brushing his fur with the brush Judy just used sent a thrill through him that he couldn't quite place. _What is going on with me?_ he wondered. He lifted his muzzle up to straighten out his neck fur with middling results.

A strangeness about the situation he was in started to overwhelm him. An odd self-awareness had been seemingly omnipresent for him in the last few weeks, like a fog — the near panic attack last night in the parking lot was so out of the ordinary it almost seemed like it had happened to someone else. It was like he had been a passenger, watching events unfold through someone else's eyes.

 _Happy_ , he thought, _I'm happy._ The realization stopped his arm as he smoothed out his chest fur. He looked at himself in the mirror for a long few seconds. For the first time in years he was happy deep down. Almost deliriously so. He was jolted from his musing by a pounding on the door.

"Nick!" Judy called, "Hurry up! We don't have much time!"

Nick blinked and shook himself.

"Right… right!" he said and tossed the brush into the sink. He grabbed his uniform off the hangar and quickly started to dress, opening the door once he began to shrug on his blue button-down shirt.

Judy stood there, hands on hips and one of her large feet tap tapping the floor. "Oh, for crying out loud," she sighed and stepped forward, grabbing his shirt to straighten it.

"Hey!" Nick said trying to fend her off, "I'm a big boy you know, I can dress myself!"

"Shush," she grumbled, batting his paws away. "You're as bad as my father…" She deftly started to button up his shirt.

Nick sighed and held his arms out, paws up.

Judy briefly turned her eyes up at him and huffed, looking back down. "And you males complain about how long us girls take in the bathroom." She tugged his collar couple of times until it looked right, then grabbed the tie hanging loosely around his neck. Judy's fingers flew, and Nick jerked his head back as one end of the tie went flying and smacked him across the muzzle.

"Ow!" he complained, and Judy shushed him again.

"Don't be a baby, it's just a tie," she said as she got the knot just so. She slid it up and snugged it tight, taking a moment to ensure she wasn't choking him . She pulled and tweaked with practiced fingers, stepped back, and gave him a quick once over. "Good enough. Tuck your shirt in and let's go!" she said. She fished her phone out of her pocket and looked down at it and let out a groan. "We got fifteen minutes!" she said and hurried for the door with Nick right behind her.

Nick's estimate that it was a 'ten-minute walk' had not been entirely accurate. They had started to jog or tried to until it became rapidly apparent that Judy was in no condition to jog at any pace. She might have been if they could spend time stretching, but that wasn't an option. Judy's head as on a swivel and noticed a passing cab, which she managed to flag down.

The cabbie, a slightly disheveled older lion, did a double take as he looked in his rearview mirror.

"Oh! It's you two!" he said and chuckled. "Didn't think I'd get the pair of you as a fare today."

Nick blinked at his choice of words, but Judy was oblivious.

"Yup! It's us! The heroes of Zootopia!" Judy said in that bubbly-but-slightly-flattering tone she got when she was in a hurry. She assumed his comment was referencing their notoriety from the missing mammals case; she was recognized regularly while on patrol. Even Nick had had started garnering attention yesterday while on patrol. "Now, if you would please get us to the ZPD headquarters building as fast as possible, that would be just great."

The lion smiled and did a quick mock salute with two fingers.

"You got it, kiddo," he said. Nick could have sworn the lion had floored it, and both he and Judy were pushed back against the seat from the sudden acceleration. Judy was about to request he keep the speeding to a minimum, but a look at the clock on the center dash sealed her lips as the lion darted through traffic.

His frantic, and in Judy's opinion borderline illegal, pace managed to get them to the station with five minutes to spare. Judy opened the door of the cab and hopped out before it even stopped, hustling towards the entrance of the building.

Nick rolled his eyes. "I guess I'm paying," he muttered and pulled out his wallet. He fished out a ten dollar bill that was easily worth three times the cost of the trip, and tossed it to the cabbie over the seat. "Keep the change!" he said and hurried after Judy.

"Hey! Thanks, buddy! And good luck to you kids!" the cabbie said and drove off.

Nick stopped. He looked back and tracked the cab as it drove away. _What was that supposed to mean? Good luck for what?_ Nick wondered. He shook himself and turned to speed after Judy.

Judy reached the doors ahead of Nick and looked at her phone again obsessively for the hundredth time just as the automatic revolving door turned. She barely sidestepped Sergeant Howlowitz from criminal investigation who was coming out the other way.

"Sorry! Excuse me! Big hurry here!" she said, completely missing the rather amused look the big wolf gave her.

However, the look was not lost on Nick.

Howlowitz chuckled as he spied Nick a few paces behind Judy, cocked a finger gun at him and 'shot' him with a click of his tongue.

Between that, the wolf's look at Judy, and the bizarre comments from the cabbie, Nick was starting to feel an unease building in his stomach. He trotted up behind Judy and they shuffled through the rotating door together.

Judy was quickly marching towards the locker rooms and turned to look at Nick while walking backward.

"You go up and wait for me. I got just enough time-" Her words trailed off as she saw Nick. He had stopped a few paces beyond the door, his ears splayed out, and staring wide-eyed past her.

"Oh boy…" Nick said.

Judy slowly turned back around, starting to notice the silence that was slowly falling. Outside of a few civilians, the main hall had upwards of twenty officers going to and fro or standing in twos or threes talking. As soon as she and Nick came through the main doors, all of them were now looking at her and Nick. Some grinned, others rolled their eyes, but not one officer was doing anything other than openly staring at them. One group of six or seven congregated around Clawhauser at the front desk.

"Wooooo!" someone hooted.

"Hey, Hopps! Where's yer uniform?" another one called from somewhere. Bemused laughter echoed through the hall.

Judy's ears fell, and embarrassment at the sudden scrutiny surged through her, "They… all know?" she squeaked.

"Uhh… Carrots..." Nick said from behind her, his voice containing uncustomary concern.

Judy turned. Nick had picked up a newspaper lying on a nearby bench. Judging by the grimace on his muzzle, she she was sure she wasn't going to like whatever it was.

Nick looked up at her, slowly turning it around, "It's a bit worse than that…"

It was Saturday and the weekend papers always came with a few special interest inserts. She recognized this one as the weekly gossip and entertainment section. On the front, in shiny, high-resolution detail, was a close-up picture. It was surrounded by a vignette in the shape of a heart and featured Nick and Judy kissing in the parking lot last night. The title shouted out in big white letters:

"Love is in the Air! Are Zootopia's First Rabbit and Fox Police Officers an Item?"

Judy's muzzle slowly opened in abject horror. She dropped her head into her paws, "Oh sweet cheese and crackers," she breathed.

The hall erupted in more laughter, hoots, and howls. Hooves and paws pounded on Clawhauser's desk.

From the mezzanine balcony a deep, baritone voice cut over the commotion.

"Hopps! Wilde! My Office, now!"


	4. Chief Bogo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a revamped version of the story that is being posted as my heavy hitting editors and I go back through it. Once edits are complete the story will be rolled into one.

Judy raised her head from her paws and tried to compose herself. She took a deep breath, counted to five, and exhaled slowly. "Ok," she said and started off to towards the elevators, "Let's get this over with."

Nick followed her silently. He was too busy examining the front of the insert. "Gotta admit, Carrots," Nick said eventually, "It is a good picture."

Judy grunted with irritation. Her gaze was drawn to the group of officers milling around the front desk. She slowed her pace and narrowed her eyes. Her nose wiggled, and she cocked one ear, "Pay up, McHorn. Daddy needs a new box of donuts!" she caught an extremely gleeful Clawhauser whispering.

"What are they doing?" she asked, looking from one figure to the next. She pointedly ignored the circumspect looks directed her and Nick's way, pretending not to her the few remaining sniggers and chuckles. She saw a few bills exchanged between paws.

Nick looked over briefly then back to the insert. "Betting on us," he said casually.

Judy's head whipped to Nick. "What!" she cried then turned her head back to the group, "Betting on us?"

"Yup," Nick said. He licked a fingerpad and turned a page.

Judy threw her arms up. "How can you be so... so blasé! Doesn't it bother you?" she hissed in a whisper.

Nick hummed and turned another page. "Nope, it's what I would have done," he said, "Although, I admit the entire city seeing us playing kissy face is not something I would put on my bucket list. Oh, look, there's more!" Nick leaned over, turning the open insert to Judy to show her the page with the story about them. There were two more pictures. The first picture showed Judy pulling Nick by his tie, while the other was of them walking off together.

Judy groaned and looked down at the beginning of the article, then snapped her eyes away. She knew she had to focus on their meeting with the chief, so her wanton curiosity would have to wait. She grabbed her drooping ears and pulled on them.

"Could this day possibly get any worse?" she whined. As though some unknown deity heard her question and took it as a challenge, the phone in her pocket began to ring with the jingle she had assigned to her parents. "You have got to be kidding," she sighed, and let her ears go so she could stuff a paw in her pocket to fish the device out.

"And think," Nick said, closing the insert and starting to roll it up just as they were arriving at the elevators, "It's only 7 a.m.!"

Judy shot him a glare as she got her phone out and looked down at it. Sure enough, it was her parents. She raised a finger to tap the answer icon when the phone abruptly made the little tinkling tune of it shutting down from lack of charge. The screen went black. Judy's shoulders slumped, and her expression became blank and resigned. She stuffed the phone back into her pocket.

Nick gave her a sidelong glance, smirking. "Let me get that," he said reaching up to press the call button on the elevator when Judy just stood there and made no move to push the button herself. There was an immediate ding, the up arrow mounted on the wall next to the elevator they stood in front of turned green, and the brushed steel doors slid smoothly open.

Judy walked in, stopped in the center of the elevator, and turned around numbly as if she were in a trance.

Nick entered behind her and reached up to press the 'M2' button before taking position beside her.

The doors closed, and there was a quiet hiss as the hydraulic piston that lifted the elevator engaged.

Judy looked at their heavily distorted reflection in the brushed metal and idly wondered if her parents knew, too. They religiously read the Zootopia Times, although it didn't usually arrive in Bunnyburrow until sometime around nine or ten in the morning. She had no other explanation as to why else they would be calling this early. She also found it hard to drum up much energy to care right now.

Nick looked down at her, gauging her mood. "Relax," he said, "Everything will be fine."

Judy looked up at him with a sour expression. "Fine? How can it be fine?" she demanded. She'd subconsciously balled her paws into fists. "All our coworkers laughing… this is humiliating! And who knows what book the chief is going to throw at us!"

Nick arched an eyebrow.

The elevator beeped as it passed the level one mezzanine.

"Is that what you think? Listen, they're not laughing at us, Carrots," Nick said with an easy smile, "they're laughing with us."

Judy rolled her eyes at the cliché saying.

"That doesn't even make sense, Nick," Judy said in a tired voice and stared back at the elevator doors, "and do you see me laughing?"

Nick shrugged. "Okay, so that was a bad metaphor, but I'm serious," he said.

"That wasn't a metaphor," Judy said, still looking forward.

"What?" Nick said, puzzled.

"That wasn't a metaphor," Judy said again.

Nick sighed, "Okay fine, " he said, "analogy then."

"It wasn't an analogy, either," Judy said, voice still flat and her gaze forward.

Nick made a frustrated grunt. "The point is, I'm betting they're happy for us. If we were really going to get in big trouble, then the tone down there would have been a lot different."

There was another cheerful ding as they reached the second level. The doors slid open, but Judy paused to think about what Nick just said. She blinked and walked out just as the doors started to close, triggering the automatic sensors and jerking them open again.

They turned, beginning the long walk around the circular balcony towards Chief Bogo's office. Behind her, Judy heard the elevator door closing like it was her last option for escape before meeting her fate.

Nick kept pace beside her and continued. "Everybody likes you, Carrots," he said, "Not only that, but they respect you, too. Don't you see the way everybody treats you around here? I've only been here what, a day? Even I can see that a lot of the others look up to you as a model cop." Nick paused, "Er, not up, exactly… but, well, you know what I mean." He chuckled. "Did you know you're a legend at the academy?"

Judy perked her ears up and gave Nick and incredulous look.

"What?"

"It's true!" Nick said, "The Major held up a picture of you and gave a little speech my first day."

Judy rolled her eyes, "Get out of here," she said. Her attempts at staying insistently worried were betrayed by the pride in her voice.

Nick held up two fingers. "Scouts honor, Fluff," he said, "I would never lie to you."

Judy struggled and failed to conceal a smile building on her muzzle. She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment.

"What did she say?" she finally asked, now curious.

Nick looked thoughtful for a moment.

"It went something like," he started, pausing to recall it properly. He cleared his throat and spoke in a falsetto. "Do you see this? This little carrot-farming ball of fluff came in here and kicked every kind of tail there is to kick in this academy! She set the bar so high you sorry sacks of fur will need a ladder to reach it!"

The stress Judy had balled up inside her since waking up was released in a cacophony of giggles. Nick couldn't do the voice well, but he had the big polar bear instructor's cadence down pat. If he worked on it, she thought he could be a dead ringer for her.

"Huh," Judy said, her voice still sputtering a bit from leftover laughter, "That… that is pretty cool." The new revelation soothed the sting of embarrassment she'd felt walking through the precinct.

A sound caught Judy's attention, and her ear cocked automatically. They were about halfway around the balcony, and through the chief's open door, she could just hear him talking to someone. At first, she thought it was some other officer in the office with him. She stopped, and a growing dread began welling up at the placating tone of the chief's voice.

Nick took a couple of more steps before stopping and turning back to her. "What?" he asked.

"Shhh!" Judy hissed, holding up a paw. She strained to hear, and it became clear that the conversation was one sided.

"No… no, Mister and Missus Hopps. I assure you Judy is just fine. She just arrived at the station. Yes. Yes. In fact, she's on her way to my office right now for a meeting."

Judy's eyes went wide in disbelief. "Oh, no… no, no, no!" Judy said. Sore muscles forgotten, she dashed forward and raced around the rest of the balcony towards the open door of Chief Bogo's office.

"What is it? Fluff, answer me! " Nick exclaimed, scurrying after her.

Judy arrived at the doorway in a slide and grabbed the door frame, but the inertia swung her half into the room. Nick sped up behind her but started to stop too late and piled into her causing the both of them to stumble all the way into the office.

Chief Bogo sat in his chair, phone raised to his head. His piercing gaze snapped to the both of them.

"No... no, Mister Hopps," he said in a calm tone that did not match the heat in his glare, "I assure you, Officer Wilde did not eat your daughter."

Nick raised a paw behind Judy.

"Eh, depends on your definition of eating," he quipped.

Judy put her small paws over her eyes.

"Oh good gods, Nick. Shut up," she said, exasperated.

Chief Bogo's gaze slowly focused on Nick as he spoke into the phone again, his unnerving stare not leaving Nick's' eyes.

Nick gave a big smarmy, toothy grin back.

"Yes sir, that was Officer Wilde… I believe he was trying to be funny," the Chief said, glare never leaving Nick.

Nick gulped, and the grin didn't so much as vanish as it fell away in pieces.

"I, uh, shouldn't have said that," he whispered out of the side of his muzzle, "I definitely should not have said that.".

"You think?" Judy hissed back at him.

"I agree sir, it was not funny, but Judy is here now. Would you like to speak to her?" Bogo said into the phone, his tone all honey, "Certainly… here she is." Chief Bogo pulled the corded receiver and held it down next to his desk.

Judy darted forward and reached for the phone, but the Chief didn't seem inclined to let it go and just glared down at her as he held it at her level.

"Ah, heh.." she uttered and gulped. She gave a strained little smile up at the towering bulk of the buffalo. The receiver was large for her size; Judy had to hold it with both paws, and she balanced it uncomfortably next to her. Like so many things in the building, it was not designed with mammals her size in mind. She sighed and just pressed an ear to the earpiece.

"Mom, Dad! Hi!" Judy said with forced cheerfulness.

"Oh Judy!" her mother's relieved voice said from the small speaker, "You had us so worried! When you didn't answer the phone…" Her father then interrupted.

"Your Uncle Benny called and said a fox had gone savage and attacked you!"

Judy rolled her eyes. _Uncle Benny… that explains a lot_ , she thought. She'd completely forgotten her semi-deranged uncle lived in the Zootopia suburbs.

"He said it was in the newspaper and everything!" her mother said.

"C'mon, you guys! Uncle Benny is a few carrots short of a bunch," she said in a placating tone, "You know how he tends to… exaggerate! Look, the battery in my phone is dead; that's why I didn't answer. I'll call you later today once I get it charged, ok?" She started to hear her mother respond but the Chief jerked the phone away and back up to himself.

"I am terribly sorry to interrupt Mister and Missus Hopps, but I need to discuss a very important issue with your daughter. As she said, she will call you later, good day." The Chief set the phone down carefully in one smooth motion. That quiet 'click' was somehow louder than if he had slammed it down. He held his hoof-fingered hand on the receiver for a long moment stared at stared at something in the corner of his office.

"Officer Hopps," Bogo said slowly, "Would you care to tell me how your parents have my direct extension?"

Judy had already been wondering that herself. "I have no idea, sir! Honest!" she said. Her ears burned in embarrassment. She recalled the time her parents had berated her high school principal after she got hurt at softball practice, but this was 100 times worse.

Bogo let the phone go and turned his gaze to look down at them. He grunted and pointed at the large chair positioned in front of his desk.

"Wilde, shut the door, and both of you Sit. Down." Chief Bogo said, his voice crisp with barely restrained anger.

Judy made her way over to the seat while Nick shut the door before hurrying over.

The chair was designed for mammals much larger than either of them. Nick managed to hop up easily enough, but Judy had a harder time of it. Usually, she would just hop up herself without a problem. She crouched to leap up, but her abused muscles reasserted their presence with extreme prejudice. Instead, she slowly stood back up and pulled herself up with her arms which were more functional than her lower body. She slowly settled herself down to sit next to Nick with room to spare on either side of them.

Bogo watched her and slowly raised an eyebrow. "Hopps, are you feeling okay? You're moving like you're injured," he asked.

Judy's mind went blank for a moment, and the insides of her ears turned pink yet again. "Just, er, sore sir. I... took a fall after the concert last night. Just wasn't looking where I was going," she said, wincing. It sounded lame even before the words left her muzzle.

Nick's muzzle, not taking his own advice from just moments before, decided that was a good time to dig the hole deeper.

"It's true, sir," he said. His voice was saccharine, like he wanted it to be as insincerely sincere as possible. He'd practiced the tone often back in high school when he felt like getting a few more days of detention. "Was just terrible," Nick continued, placing a paw over his chest, "Luckily, I was there to help Officer Hopps up. Several times, I might add. She was just a klutz all night long. "

Judy let out a disgusted groan, hung her head, and let her shoulders fall slump.

Chief Bogo's tree trunk neck swiveled. He locked his gaze on Nick and his expression turned suddenly mild. Almost friendly.

Judy looked up and wasn't fooled.

Nick didn't catch on what was about to come, but he easily sensed the sudden switch of attitude was not genuine. His ears slowly fell, and he swallowed.

"Officer Wilde," Bogo said, suddenly smiling warmly, "How long have you been a police officer?"

"Um, two days, sir?" Nick said, his voice wary, "Uh, not counting today."

"Do you want to make it to three?" Bogo asked, the calm tone belying the anger boiling just under the surface.

"Yes sir...?" Nick said, his voice quiet, ears splayed out.

Judy clenched her jaw and squeezed her eyes tight as her shoulders unconsciously hunched. _Here it comes,_ she thought.

"Then," Chief Bogo began. His nostrils flared, and Nick could swear he saw a vein pop on the buffalo's forehead. Bogo slammed a fist down on his desk, causing the contents on top of it, along with Nick, to jump and inch into the air, "Shut your mouth! "

Nick sat up straight to attention, back ramrod straight, eyes forward, and arms stiffly at his sides. "Sir, yes sir!" Nick barked out, his paw noisily crunching the rolled up insert he still held.

Bogo sat back, his chair creaking, and took in a deep breath. He brought a hand up to rub his rough hoof-tipped fingers on the bridge of his muzzle between his eyes. He let the breath out in a long sigh.

"Well, once again you two have put yourselves," he said and leaned his chair forward and flipped a copy of the insert up to show the picture of Nick and Judy kissing the night before continuing, "and the ZPD, in the spotlight." He smacked the insert back down onto his desk and glared at the both of them, "Oh, and by the way, it's spreading like wildfire online, if Officer Clawhauser is to be believed."

Judy groaned inwardly. She had not even thought about that. As if the paper isn't bad enough. Not everybody read the paper in this day and age, let alone the inserts, but the internet was a different story.

"I'm sorry sir… we didn't mean to cause the department, or you," she gave a cringing little nod and looked to the Chief's desk phone, "Any trouble."

"Oh, you haven't caused any trouble Officer Hopps. Well, not the department anyway," Bogo said with a smile and voice all honey while at the same time still giving Judy a sharp glare. "However, in the three hours since the early edition of the Times hit the street, this has become a political shitstorm."

Judy and Nick both blinked and looked at each other then back to Bogo.

"W-what?" Judy asked, confused.

Bogo sat up in his chair and rested his tree-trunk arms on this desk and clasped his hands together.

"Oh yes," Bogo said as he looked back and forth between them, "The mayor's office and city council are thrilled. At 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning. Do you two understand the significance of that?"

"Um," Judy said and looked at Nick, puzzled.

Nick understood though. "Think about it, Carrots," he said, "A city government official getting up early on a weekend? Outside of, you know, us? The mayor probably doesn't do anything before his 10 a.m. coffee.? "

"Ah," Judy said. In retrospect the Mayor and the council spun up this early on a weekend was rather impressive.

"Carrots?" Bogo asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"Oh, um," Judy said and cleared her throat, "That's just Nick's nickname for me."

Bogo turned his gaze on Nick with both eyebrows going up.

Nick gave a big toothy, fake grin, but didn't say anything.

Bogo closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. "As I was saying," he said and opened his eyes, "You two are now the darlings of Zootopia! Solvers of the missing mammals! A little rabbit and fox, top students at the academy, first of their species to be police officers, and now apparently in an interspecies predator-prey relationship." He pantomimed headlines across the room. The grimace on his muzzle showed through the veneer of civility he was trying to put on. "They can't fall over each other fast enough to try taking credit. Regardless of where it came from, the Mammal Inclusion Initiative is still active and has proved wildly popular with the citizenry… and guess who the new poster children are?"

Judy's face went blank, "We... are?" she said, her voice rising in question.

"Correct," Bogo said, "I should suspend the both of you and-"

Judy's eyes went wide, "But sir! We-" she interrupted, but Bogo cut her off.

"Shut it, Hopps!" Bogo snapped, glaring at her, "As I was about to say… suspend you both and assign you to new partners."

Judy's heart skipped. She didn't want another partner, but she also knew that her feelings about that were now part of the problem, too.

Bogo ground his teeth together. "But unfortunately, and I do mean unfortunately, things have changed. I had a… shall we say, lively discussion with the Mayor before you arrived. Both he and you have put me in a difficult position." He looked back and forth at them again. "I do assume you two attended, and were awake, for the lecture on fraternization at the Academy?"

Judy dropped her gaze.

"Yes, sir," she said. Nick remained quiet.

Bogo snorted. "Then perhaps one of you would care to tell me why fraternization is a problem in the workplace, especially on a police force, and even more specifically between partners?" Bogo asked.

Judy didn't look up. She took a breath and clasped her paws together, beginning to speak in a monotone voice.

"Potential problems would include, but aren't limited to, sexual harassment allegations, EMEOC complaints, and the enormous difficulty and strain of continuing a professional relationship with a current, former or now defunct, love interest," she paused to draw in another breath, "In addition officer judgement, especially in respect to direct partners, can be clouded leading to dangerous, and sometimes life-threatening situations, causing delays in reaction, incorrect threat assessment and or inattention to imminent or potential threats."

Nick looked at Judy with a cocked eyebrow as she recited the passage verbatim from the class workbook.

Chief Bogo seemed surprised as well and arched his eyebrows at the rote recitation.

"Very good, Hopps," Bogo said, "It's a shame it didn't seem to sink in."

"But, sir!" Judy started again, and Bogo held up a hand.

"I gave you a rope and you, both of you, collectively hung yourselves with it!" He said, his voice rising towards the end. "Based on your performance and past professionalism, if you had shown up here, on time, bright eyed and ready to hit the streets, I was going to let you off with a much briefer lecture and a warning. Instead, you show up effectively late-"

Judy raised a finger to contest that point, but Bogo didn't give her a chance to speak.

"And out of uniform, in your case, Hopps. Speaking of which, where is your uniform?"

Judy's mind raced… tell the truth or not… or perhaps bend it a bit?

"In my locker sir," she said after a brief hesitation.

Bogo narrowed his eyes at her. "Don't lie to me Hopps!" he yelled, "This is another example of what I'm talking about! I saw you leave yesterday in uniform. Are you telling me you have a second complete set of equipment and clothes stored here?"

"She's not lying, sir," Nick said helpfully, "She was going to put on her dress blues."

Judy's muzzle dropped open and she stared at Nick with a look of betrayal.

"Thanks a lot, partner!" she snapped. Nick smiled ever so slightly. A bit of smug slyness crept back onto his muzzle as he gave her a wink.

"I'm just saving you from yourself, Carrots, and I've always said honesty is the best policy," he explained.

Judy's muzzle dropped open again. The sheer ridiculousness and audacity of that last statement coming out of his muzzle left her at a loss for words.

"Are you two quite finished?" Bogo asked in a voice burdened by the demand for stoicism. Judy dropped her head and slumped in the seat. She seemed to be doing a lot of that, she noted.

"Yes, sir," she murmured.

"I'm disappointed in you, Hopps," Bogo said, "I expected you, of all officers, to be professional about this, but it seems I was wrong."

"I'm sorry, sir," Judy said, defeat in her voice.

Bogo turned his attention to Nick.

"And you, Officer Wilde," he said, "I do not yet know you well enough, but this is as much your fault as hers."

"Yes, sir," Nick said, finally looking and sounding a bit more conciliatory as well.

"What you two do with each other when off duty is none of my or the ZPD's business," Bogo continued, "But when it impacts your ability to do your job, you become a danger to yourself and others? That is when it becomes my business! What I have seen this morning does not fill me with confidence."

He said this last with the sharp tap of a hoofed finger on this desk. He leaned back in his chair again and stared at them for a long moment. "As Chief, I have leeway on how and when to enforce department policy regarding fraternization. This is also not the first time this kind of situation has come up. Normally I would suspend you for two weeks, but unofficially and with pay, and reassign you to different partners."

This perked Nick's ears some… with pay?

"Not as a punishment," Bogo said, "Affairs of the heart are not something you can bargain with or turn on and off like a light switch, and I'm not as cold or heartless as some of your fellow officers may claim. I am not going to lose good officers or generate enmity by being inflexible about things that are a part of life, but I am also not going to put those in a relationship together on the street. It compromises you both."

Bogo focused on Judy, "You're a good officer, Hopps, a bloody good one," he said then switched his gaze to Nick, "And Wilde, you have potential." Bogo was silent for a moment and gazed at the two, Judy and Nick's gazes downcast, neither willing to meet his disappointed gaze.

"As for the suspension, it would have given you two time to burn off some off this initial… energy you two may have going on right now, but," Bogo waved a hand at the insert still resting on his desk, "Because of what that has stirred up, the plan has changed."

"Sir?" Judy said.

Chief Bogo rubbed his face with a hoof.

"You two are now assigned to a special Mammal Inclusion Initiative task force for the next two weeks," Bogo said, "As I said, I had a discussion with the mayor this morning, and we came to a compromise. Your job for the next two weeks is to be seen together as much as possible. Two weeks should be plenty of time for the news cycle to move on and give the Mayor and Council what they want."

"What?" Judy asked, baffled, "Seen? How sir?"

Bogo sat up and picked up his reading glasses, perching them on his muzzle. He picked up a small notepad on his desk and looked down at it.

"For the next week you are off any official duty, which means no uniforms," he said and flipped the pad to the next page then back to the first, "You are to be seen in areas of high pedestrian traffic together. Where you're seen is your choice."

Judy and Nick looked at each other in disbelief as Bogo set the pad down, took his glasses off, and looked back to them.

"You will be provided with a one hundred dollar a day per diem, each, to spend on meals and entertainment," he said, "You will also be provided with pre-paid debit cards, which the mayor has assured me will arrive by the end of the day. You will be expected to keep receipts and put in an expense report at the end of the week. You will report back to regular duty a week from this Monday, and for the rest of that week, you will be on foot patrol in and around various city focal points yet to be determined. Are there any questions?"

"I have one sir," Nick said holding a paw up, "You're telling me that we are going on a forced, paid vacation so we can… date? And the department is going to pay for... for what? Dinner and movies?"

"Dinner, lunch, breakfast, opera, cotton candy at the carnival, I don't care," Bogo said, "The only stipulation is that they are public places, so no sitting at home ordering pizza. And the department isn't paying, the city is. It's coming out of the new Mammal Inclusion Initiative budget."

Judy thought a moment. Several days of being paid to be functionally off-duty didn't sit well with her. After the missing mammals case, she was eager to get out on patrol with Nick to see what they could do together. "Sir, I can't help but feel this is all highly unusual, and a... very inappropriate use of public funds and resources," she said.

Bogo turned his unnerving stare to her. "Inappropriate is not the word I would use, Hopps," he said. The strain in his voice was unmistakeable "I prefer the word ludicrous, but this is now a political issue. All in all, everybody wins. I get you off the street so you can go stare googly eyes at each other somewhere else for a while, you get to go stare googly eyes at each other somewhere else for a while, and the Mayor and City Council get more good PR. Believe me, Hopps, they are still scratching for every bit of that they can to help repair the damage Lionheart and Bellwether caused."

"Sir, we are not... staring googly eyes at each other!" Judy protested.

Bogo picked up the insert to show them the picture again. "Oh, really?" he said, "Tell me, Officer Hopps, what did you do last night? What time did you actually get to sleep? You do not look well rested. What do you plan to do tonight?"

Judy's ears burned as she looked at the insert Bogo held up but saw other images flashing in her mind. This morning had been such a rushed blur she hadn't thought of anything beyond making it to this meeting, but now that the questions were asked, she found herself unable to answer with any certainty.

"I, uh, we… I mean, we won't be-" Judy stammered, squirming under the scrutiny.

"I rest my case," Bogo said and tossed the insert down.

"But sir," Judy said, searching for a flaw, "What if it gets out that it's all a PR stunt paid for by the city?"

Bogo shrugged and rubbed his eyes. "I don't care," he said. The effort required dealing with politicians was starting to wear on the buffalo, and he couldn't keep the resignation from inflecting in his voice.d "But it seems they thought of that already. If information gets out, they will just spin it as a reward. A token of gratitude for your exemplary service. Show to the good citizens of Zootopia that the Mammal Inclusion Initiative brings mammals together!" he said with a half-hearted flourish of one big hoof, "Or some such nonsense."

He stopped rubbing his eyes and focused on them. "Which would be the truth in a sense, would it not?" he asked, "Certainly brought you two together. You are an item now, yes? That, it seems, would not be a fabrication."

Judy looked at Nick, and Nick looked back as their gaze locked for a long moment.

"Googly eyes," Bogo said.

Judy shook herself and ground her teeth. She did not like this. It was too… too… slimy. She felt like she was being used and manipulated, like when the buffalo sitting in front of her tasked her with solving 14 separate abduction cases on her second official day on the force. She hadn't forgotten what that felt like, and the same feeling was welling inside her.

"What if we don't agree?" she asked. Her voice was more clipped than she'd intended.

"Carrots…" Nick said. He saw absolutely no problem with this, but he could easily see Judy sinking the entire thing on principles.

"I would not advise it, Hopps. It would not make you friends in city hall," Bogo warned, "But if you insist, then I will simply do what I said and suspend you both for two weeks and assign you to new partners."

Judy looked over at Nick who was slightly shaking his head and giving her a stare that screamed 'No!' She toughened her expression and glared back at the Chief.

"This is blackmail!" she said accusingly. Bogo tensed for a brief moment then he sighed. He brought a hand up to rub the bridge of his muzzle again.

"No, it isn't," he said, his voice taking on an almost fatherly tone, "Trust me, Hopps, I would like nothing more than for you to say no so I could separate you two, and not from some need to be dogmatic about policy." He dropped his hand from his muzzle and looked at them. "The policy is there for a reason, and you know it. If I let it slide and it did lead to one of you, both, or someone else, getting hurt or worse, then it would be my fault. You'll excuse me if I do not want that on my conscience. I may still separate you two after the two weeks regardless… but consider this a test, both of you. Prove to me you can keep your personal life off duty, and I will leave things as they stand."

Judy gritted her teeth. She knew Bogo had a point, but she wasn't about to let the opportunity to serve with Nick slip from her paws, fraternization rules be damned.. She sighed and leaned forward, meeting Bogo's eyes.

"Fine. But sir, you better believe we'll prove to be the best damn unit the city has even seen." she said slowly.

A small smile played at the corners of Bogo's mouth. "I look forward to that very much, Hopps. Hopefully you'll remember your uniform when you're so adamantly proving me wrong," he said. Bogo turned to Nick. "And Officer Wilde, what are your thoughts on all of this?"

"I'm on board one hundred percent sir!" Nick said. He was downright thrilled about the situation. Paid time off? A hundred bucks a day to blow on whatever? Yes, please! Judy on the other paw...

"Excellent," Bogo said mildly and picked up his glasses and perched them on his muzzle once more. He picked up a file folder from his desk and began to go through it, no longer looking at either Nick or Judy. "Clawhauser will call you when the cards arrive," he said as he flicked the folder open, "Now, get out of my office."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir," Nick said, being uncharacteristically tactful as he made shooing motions at Judy.

Judy said nothing as they both slid off the seats and started to make for the door.

"Oh," Bogo said, "One other thing."

Nick and Judy stopped, turning back.

Bogo's nostrils flared, but he didn't look up from the folder. "Go take a shower. You two stink. Like each other, I might add," he said.

Judy's ears burned, while Nick looked offended, but didn't say anything.

"Yes, sir…" Judy said dully and turned, ears down. At this point, she just wanted to get out there. The last twelve hours had been a roller-coaster in more ways than one. She was tired, sore, hungry, thirsty, determined, grumpy, and emotionally spent.

They opened the door and walked out of the office. Side by side they started the long walk back around the curving mezzanine balcony.

Trotting towards them was Patricia Hogg, who worked down in records. She carried an armful of file folders and was apparently heading to the Chief's office. She was giving them that knowing smile everyone, except Chief Bogo, seemed to be doing.

Nick brought his forearm up and snuffled along it, "I do not stink," he said sourly.

"Yes you do," Hogg said as she trotted past.

Nick spun. "I do not!" he barked, arms half raised.

Judy couldn't help but be mildly amused by his antics. It was rare that Nick showed real offense to something. He always using humor to cover or deflect, but apparently being told he smelled was not something he could abide.

"Yes, you do!" Hogg said again in the same conversational tone as she continued without stopping or glancing back, "You smell like sex. She smells like sex and shame."

"I'm pretty sure this could qualify as sexual harassment!" Nick called to the pig as she walked away.

Judy stopped and hung her head. She took a deep breath and held it for a long beat before slowly letting it out. "I would say this day could not possibly get any worse again, but I'm afraid the building might fall on us." She rubbed her face "I'm going to the gym," she said, "I need to hit something."

Nick looked down at her, and her own soreness seemed to infect him, too. They hadn't gotten much sleep, and it was starting to catch up with him now that the adrenaline of the past hour was ebbing.

"You want to use me as a punching bag?" Nick asked, "I kind of feel like I deserve it."

Judy gave that some serious thought. She could probably handle him in a sparring contest, but she decided she didn't really want to try. Not today anyway. In spite of all his quips and inappropriate comments, she found she wasn't mad at him. She didn't think she could be right now that the drama was over. Out of all the mammals in the entire city, Nick was the only one going through this with her. Plus, she figured if the way her cheeks turned pink when he bore his dorky grin was any indication, she probably couldn't stay mad at him if she tried.

Her thoughts were instead straying to last night, about them, and the uncertain future. Her ears started to burn again. She cleared her throat then snorted a little laugh as she slid over to give Nick a light bump with her hips.

"No, you goof," she said, "I don't think I really want to spar, but you up for a jog?"

Nick shrugged. "Not really," he said and yawned, "But I'll do it for you."

Judy smiled and felt little better as she started walking.

"Let's do this," she said.


	5. All the Little Things

Judy pushed through the door to the female locker room open and kept her ears perked. She breathed a sigh of relief at the sound of no water running and no feet shuffling across the tile floors.

The morning rush usually didn't last much beyond 6:30  or 7 a.m. as shifts were beginning or ending. It would pick up again in an hour or so, but right now it was the sweet spot between shifts. It suited her just fine — she really was in no mood to deal with anyone right now. It didn't matter if they were all 'happy for them,' as Nick said, it was still embarrassing to have something so personal be so exposed. The betting was especially egregious, and she felt a seed of disgust growing in the pit of her stomach. She narrowed her eyes as she padded down the rows of lockers.

"How much you want to bet Clawhauser is the ringleader…" she muttered to herself.

Her thoughts were interrupted as she saw a water fountain and her thirst suddenly came to the forefront of her attention. She hadn’t had anything to drink since just before the concert last night, and given the night's activities, she felt on the brink of dehydration. Thankfully, it was a standard multi-tiered unit with the second-to-lowest level at her height. She leaned over and started gulping down the cold, crisp water, sighing with content as the dry mouth she’d had since she woke up disappeared. It was good; she could feel herself beginning to unwind already.

She had the presence of mind to stop herself before she drank too much. It was never a good idea to load up when going to exercise, but it would be enough for now. She stepped back, sighed deeply, and smacked her lips in satisfaction.

"Whooo… that's better," she said, and turned and headed to her locker.

The row where hers was located consisted of the smaller kind where each had top and bottom doors. These were mostly used for those who didn't have a regular locker and just needed a place to store clothes or items temporarily while they worked out. For her, they were the perfect 'full' size with the bottom ones just at her height. She flipped the series of built-in combination dials, and once open, shrugged out of her t-shirt. She held it in her paws for a moment looking before ducking her head down to delicately sniff. She didn't really smell anything. She smelled herself, of course, and some of Nick but it certainly didn't stink like the chief and Hogg had implied. She furrowed her brow at the shirt.

"What does shame even smell like?" she grumbled and hung the shirt on one of the hooks, wriggled out of her shorts, and hung them as well.

She had a few sets of workout clothes in the locker; one fresh, two others not so fresh that she had yet to take to the laundry. Not wanting to soil the clean pair, she pulled out one of her dirty ones. She was apparently in desperate need of a shower, if the chief and Hogg were to be believed, and she was still half-disheveled and felt pretty grimy. It had been a few days since her last shower, which normally wasn’t an issue for her Usually, just a quick dunk now and then to get the day's dust off was all that was needed, but after last night... well… they had been all over each other, mixing each other’s scents for hours.

She wasn't dumb. She knew everybody had oils in their fur and were constantly exuding pheromones of one kind or another. Nick certainly did have that distinctive, light, foxy musk to him that she personally found pleasant. She figured her scent must have been pretty foxy, which would mean Nick smelled pretty rabbity in turn. She sighed. She so looked forward to a nice, long, hot soak. And shampoo. _Lots of shampoo,_ she thought. She finished pulling on a snug fitting black tank top and blue shorts then headed for the entrance to the gym.

The gym was on the second level of the ZPD building. It was around two hundred feet long and half that wide, with a tall arched ceiling to accommodate the larger members of the force. The room was slightly curved as were the outer walls and windows that overlooked the street along the backside of the building.

Warm morning light filtered in through the windows. It wasn't the harsh direct glare of the morning sun, however, but a more muted and soft glow from light reflected off the buildings across the street.

The room was filled with cardio and weight-training equipment, with a few other open areas used for sparring and stretching. There were weight machines, benches, free weights, and treadmills, but due to her size, Judy was relegated to using mostly the smallest of free weights and a very few of the machines. She was the smallest officer on the force, and there were few concessions for smaller mammals anywhere in the building, except for public spaces the occasional water fountain. The gym was no exception.

Judy looked around; only a few other officers were there with her. A tiger ran on one of the treadmills, while a snow leopard at the far end was jumping rope in one of the open spaces. She spied a gray wolf and rhino she recognized from her time at the Academy. Most of them were on separate shifts from her, so Judy’s interactions with them were limited to saying hello in the hallway as the other clocked in or out.

Howlson, the wolf, and McHorn, the rhino, were doing some punch pad practice in one of the open areas. McHorn held the pads for Howlson; Judy figured if they switched places, the wolf would get knocked across the room from the force of the rhino’s punches. McHorn noticed her walking in and raised a padded hand in greeting.

"Hey, Hopps! How's it goin'?" he said in his gravelly voice. The wolf turned and raised a paw as well.

"Hey!" Howlson said. Judy noticed his tail started wagging when he saw her.

Judy smiled, absurdly grateful they either didn't know or weren’t mentioning her unwanted appearance in the weekend newspaper. She raised a paw back to them just as Nick exited the large door a few feet down from the one she had she had muscled her way past.  

"Hey, guys! I’m doing alright, you?" she said.

"Can't complain!" McHorn said, shrugging.

Howlson spied Nick and looked back to Judy and gave her a wink with a thumbs up.

 _Okay… so they do know._ Judy sighed and rolled her eyes.

Howlson barked a short laugh until McHorn cuffed him lightly upside the head. It was a testament to McHorn's control that he didn't send the wolf sprawling, but it did elicit a yelp of surprise.

"Don't be a jerk!" she heard the big rhino say.

"Ow! Okay! Okay! Yeesh!" the wolf said, rubbing his head. McHorn inclined his head again at Judy.

"We'll catch ya later Hopps," he said and lifted the pads up again. "C'mon, puppy, gimme whatchya got," McHorn said. His taunt had the desired effect, and the two resumed their practice as Nick stepped up beside her.

Judy looked up at him. He was dressed in a white t-shirt and gray shorts hanging loosely over his body. The word 'handsome' popped into her mind unbidden, and that strange full body flush coursed over her again.

Judy was starting to regret coming into the gym now. She was tired and seriously ready to demolish some breakfast. She and Nick hadn’t had any time to really talk yet, either, and she was starting to get anxious about it. She suspected that her idea to come to the gym was just an unconscious way to avoid it. She did want to talk, specifically about them and what everything that just happened meant.

Her mind tended to go blank every time she tried to think about how to start such a conversation. Outside of her desire to become a ZPD officer, Judy had never been fond of talking about the future. This morning hadn’t made things any easier. From the moment she woke up until now, she’d been rushing from one crisis to the next.

Nick looked down at her and caught her lingering gaze on him. "Having second thoughts?" he asked.

She blinked. Alarms blared in her head before she realized he was talking about coming to the gym and not about them. Her ears burned and she chided herself. The fatigue had taken a toll on her usually sharp mind.

She rubbed at her eyes tiredly. "I guess so, but now that we're here…" she said, shrugging, "Let's stretch first, at least. I'm tired of feeling like an invalid." She knew being so stiff and sore could have actually made her a liability on the streets, and it unnerved her. _The chief was right,_ she thought. Not that she really doubted it, but being given an obvious physical example was humbling.

Nick smiled and gave a little theatrical bow, making an ushering gesture with one arm. "Lead on, Officer Hopps."

She rolled her eyes at him and padded off one of the open areas in the gym.

They used the same stretches and light exercises that were used in the Academy. Judy was no novice to exercise even before her induction too, having spent years playing sports and running track in High School.

They moved in relative silence. Stretching was mostly a solitary activity, but to in some instances it helped to have a partner help push or pull a muscle to its limit. At least that is what Judy told herself when she asked Nick to help pull her arms in a backward stretch, and again to push her each of her legs up as far she could tolerate.

 It was a simple thing, but everything Judy did with Nick now seemed to take on some extra dimension. She tried not to let it get to her, but when he touched her, it sent a thrill up her spine. She was also confident Nick was letting his paws linger a little longer than needed and pressed up against her in ways that made her shiver.

Nick's thoughts were not too different from Judy's, and she wasn't wrong about his lingering touches. He couldn't help wanting to be as close to her as she seemed to want to be to him. He started taking any excuse to 'help' that he could. Judy in turn helped him, but to a lesser extent due to her smaller size. As nice as this was, however, he had to start thinking about about anything but Judy as he was about to become what could only be termed ‘immodest.’   

He concentrated instead on the eventful night and equally hectic morning, and he wished they had just been able to sleep in. He would have been plenty content to lounge in bed and snuggle Judy and her ridiculously soft fur all day. Instead, they had to scramble in a frantic rush to the ZPD, only to get yelled at.

The one nice thing about the morning, Nick thought, had been the unexpected bonus of being kind-of-sort-of-but-not-really suspended. The new Nick was a bit miffed about being taken off the streets only a day after he had gotten on them, but unlike Judy, he was not quite as militant as she was when it came to being an officer. He planned to take the job seriously, but he doubted his ability to keep pace with the voracity that Judy tackled work with. Plus, the old Nick still inside him was more than a little pleased at getting a paid week off on top of a hundred bucks a day to spend on food and fun.

Judy groaned and winced as she forced her sore muscles to stretch, but in the end, she felt much better and limber. She was a bit more worked up from the close contact with Nick, too, but she hardly considered a few butterflies and a racing heart to be a bad thing.

They finished after a few more minutes, and Judy picked a treadmill a few down from the big female tiger, who looked focused on her run and the music coming through her earbuds. Judy didn't know her, but had seen her around before. The tigress turned her head briefly to them and gave them the same kind of inclined nod that McHorn had then turned back without comment. Judy hopped up, and Nick got on the machine to her other side.

"Two miles?" she said to Nick. He audibly groaned.

"Ugh… If you insist," he said. He yawned wide enough for his fangs to peek out of his mouth as they pressed the buttons on the control panels.

Judy had to stand on her toes to even get a decent view. She didn't know what Nick selected, but she just used the manual program to set a leisurely six mile-per-hour pace. The machines beeped and the belt slowly started to move under her, gradually picking up speed.

Nick had selected a slightly slower pace for himself, but even that seemed like too much right now.

"So," Nick said as he got into the rhythm, "Since we have some time on our paws now, what do you want to do?"

Judy was quiet for a half dozen strides as she thought. This was the exact question she had been asking herself since they left the Chief's office, and it was one she didn’t have an answer to. Outside of work, she usually kept to herself with reading in her apartment or at the nearby park. Dating hadn’t even been on her radar since she’d moved to Zootopia. _Or ever,_ she thought. She wasn’t sure what to do for one. All the cliché things dating were supposed to do together popped into her head, but in the end, she called up her logical side to analyze and enforce some kind of order. Her stomach rumbling as she ran gave her the most immediate answer.

"Food," she said.

"Amen to that. I'm so hungry I could eat a rabbit," Nick said and winked down at her.

Judy's ears burned. She was torn between shaking her head and giggling, and was too overcome by that thrill up her back that she did both.

"I also need to go home and get a change of clothes," she said after a moment as priority number two slotted into place.

Nick nodded. "Sounds like a plan, Fluff," he said.

Judy inwardly squirmed. She didn't know what it was, but she loved the nicknames he called her. All his little inappropriate comments, the way his eyes lingered on her when he thought she wasn't looking, she noticed them all. Before it had just been amusing camaraderie, but now they seemed to take on an entirely new meaning.

* * *

Nick was just short of a mile before he stabbed the big red stop button on the panel and the machine started to slow. He bent over and huffed when it finally stopped moving.

"Oh, come on!" Judy said next to him, "We're not even halfway!"

Nick waved a paw at her and stood up. Months at the academy had whipped him into shape, but he was exhausted and too hungry to care at the moment. His metaphorical tank was empty.

"I'm," he said between pants, "A fox… we're good at sneaking... not running."

Judy snorted and hopped up in a demonstration of agility to stab at the buttons on the panel and the speed increased.

Nick chuckled and shook his head. He wasn’t sure where she got her energy from, but he wished he could tap into it once in a while.

"Fine," she said, hardly winded, "Meet you out front?"

Nick arched his back in a stretch. "Yeah, but first for that shower," he said with legitimate eagerness despite his exhaustion. For the most part, mammals with fur tended to be good at being self-cleaning. A full body bath and shampoo wasn’t something needed often As much as of a hassle as he knew it would be, Nick was very much looking forward to a hot, soapy soaking. He also apparently smelled, so there was that reason, too. He struggled to smell himself, but after hours at a concert followed by hours in bed with Judy, he knew his musk must have been a bit overwhelming .

He made his way back into the locker room and to the showers. He didn't spend as much time as he initially planned. The problem with a coat like his was the difficulty in wetting it down to the skin and working the soap all the way in. The biggest pain, though, was rinsing all the shampoo out again, which usually took twice as long as everything else. After several minutes of trying to work the steamy water down into his coat, he started liberally lathering himself. It was still almost impossible to thoroughly get his back, though. He thought how much easier it would be with Judy’s help, and made a mental note to bring up showering together the next time he wanted to see her ears turn pink.

 After his russet red fur was full of bubbles, he began the process of trying to wash out all the soap. Eventually satisfied, he turned the shower off, got down on all fours, and gave a couple of good shakes to send the bulk of the water flying off him. He pushed the curtain aside and walked out, snagged his clothes, and headed toward the locker room. He grabbed a towel off the stack of them near the shower area entrance and cocked an ear as he heard the echo of conversation reverberating off the tile walls. He turned into the aisle that contained his locker and found McHorn there pulling an enormous grey-green t-shirt over his head. Nick just caught the tail of Howlson leaving around the other side of the isle. He vaguely recalled the two leaving the gym and passing by while he had been in the shower.

"See ya at MacNelly's, Mick," McHorn said from under the shirt to the departing wolf.

"Roger that!" Howlson's voice echoed back.

Nick had already started rubbing himself down one handed with the towel as he reached his locker. His, unlike Judy's, was one of the medium sized ones and he was just tall enough to be able to use. He set his clothes on the bench and continue to towel himself down.

McHorn's horn first popped out of the neck collar of the shirt, followed by the rest of his enormous head. He noticed Nick and inclined his head to him.

"Hey," McHorn said and inclined his head in that time-honored way of males everywhere.

Nick returned the greeting. "Hey."

The big Rhino tugged and settled his t-shirt then moved over to reach down to extending one huge hand. "George McHorn. Friends call me Georgie."

Nick hesitated for a moment before he took the enormous thick fingered hand, although it was more accurate to say the it enveloped his.

With a grace that belied his size, McHorn gently shook Nick's paw.

"A pleasure to meet you, Georgie," Nick said as they shook, "Nick Wilde."

McHorn snorted. "Everybody knows who you are, bro," the rhino said with a laugh and moved back in front of his own larger locker.

"Only good things, I'm sure," Nick said with a bit of sarcasm which garnered another low chuckle.

"Yeah. Somethin' like that," McHorn said and sat down on the bench running down the center of the isle. The thick, stout beam of wood creaked ominously.

Nick continued to towel himself off. "You any relation to Frank McHorn?" he asked as he dug the towel into one ear. He already knew the two were brothers, but it prevented any awkward silences.

McHorn smiled. "Yeah, that's my older brother. Bein' cops runs in the family," he said reaching into a locker to pull out a soft looking brush then leaned down to start and buff his thick toenails.

Nick didn't reply. He’d always felt somewhat unnerved by huge mammals like rhinos, and busied himself with the combination on his locker. He pulled the door open and started to reach in to get a pelt brush, but jerked his head back as the musky scent of a very specific rabbit and foxes co-mingled pheromones wafted out. He blinked and closed the door for a second then slowly pulled it open a crack to lean his head in for another sniff. He closed the door again and stared at it. He had to admit,it wasn't exactly a bad smell. It was bit overpowering in the confines of the locker, though. It took a few moments, but he finally realized that he and Judy had been scent blind.

They had been together all night, but the brain has the ability to block certain scents if you're around it long enough. Now that he’d gotten a shower, it all became apparent. His ears drooped and he let out a quiet groan of embarrassment. He and Judy had been trailing that odor behind them the entire time as they walked through the precinct. He chastised himself for not knowing better, but two hours’ sleep and the added rush to get here had distracted him from it. Plus, it had quite a while since this had been an issue for him, a fact he wasn’t excited to admit.

"You okay down there?" McHorn asked.

Nick blinked and stepped back, picking up the towel again and pretending to dry himself some more. "What? Oh! Nothing! Just, uh, thinking," he said, trying to sound nonchalant and doubting his success.

McHorn grunted and leaned down and began picking at the skin around one big nail.

There was another long pause, and Nick thought of what he was going to do. All he had here was his uniform and his workout clothes, which he now wondered if they had a questionable scent too. He eyed the clothes on the bench and shrugged. They would have to do until he could get back the apartment. They were clean, and he hardly ran for more than ten minutes before begging off, so he figured they would be the least offensive to the noses of mammals around him.

Nick made a decision. He picked up his t-shirt from the bench. "Hey, Georgie," he said, "Do me a favor?"

"What's that?"

Nick held out the shirt to the rhino. "Sniff this and tell me what you smell."

McHorn raised an eyebrow but leaned his big head over and snuffled at the shirt for a moment. "Like you two been fuckin', and not just a little bit of fuckin’, either."

Nick’s eyes closed and he let out a groan as his arms dropped to his sides.

McHorn burst out laughing. "What?" he said, "Are you tellin' me two didn't know that? Shit, me and Mick could smell you two damn near as soon as you came in."

Nick rubbed a paw down over his eyes and muzzle. "Well, that's just fantastic."

McHorn, still chuckling shook his head. "It's all good. Everybody forgets sometimes," he said, "And that shirt ain't too bad. Just give it a shake or two."

"Thanks, Georgie," Nick said with a tinge of sarcasm.

McHorn, still chuckling. He leaned forward to put the brush back in his locker before standing up. Getting up from the bench caused it to creak and visibly flex up back up to horizontal. "So," he said, drawing the word out, "You and Hopps, eh?"

Nick put the shirt down and resumed toweling himself off. He shrugged. It wasn’t exactly something he could deny — not that he wanted to. In fact, he kind of liked it that everybody knew. The newspaper was unexpected, but he found himself proud of the fact that it was now 'Him and Hopps.'

"Yeah… me and Hopps," he said with a stupid grin. He tossed the towel back onto the bench. He cracked the door to his locker open and snuck a paw in to grab his brush while trying to obscure his efforts to keep the door closed. He saw no reason to advertise things more than they already were.

McHorn gave a little chuckle and shook his head. "I tell ya, I ain’t never seen a fox and rabbit hook up. Not that I know many foxes and rabbits. Ain't you guys supposed t'be like, you know, fire and ice?" McHorn asked.

Nick couldn’t help chuckling. The oddity of his love for a rabbit was hardly lost on him. "More like fire and gasoline," he said. When McHorn looked at him with a raised eyebrow, Nick made an explosion like gesture with his paws. "Boom! Except instead of fire, it's fur."

"Ha!" the rhino said and closed the door to his locker and spun the combo wheels with a thick finger.

Nick started to brush his fur out as McHorn turned and leaned against the lockers, crossing his arms. The entire row of made a brief but distinct sound of metal under stress. For a second Nick was afraid the whole thing would fall over, but the solid construction held.

"I guess it ain't that odd," McHorn said and squinted his eyes in thought, "My cousin is datin' a grizzly bear. A grizzly bear! Damnedest thing I ever saw, but ya know what they say - love is blind and shit."

Nick gave a little shake of his head and smiled. "Believe me, Georgie," he said, "I'm as surprised as everyone else. If you said a year ago I'd be dating a rabbit girl from the country, I would have said you were crazy."

McHorn grunted out a little laugh. "So you guys in trouble?" he asked, "We heard the Chief yellin' at you when you guys came in."

Nick shrugged and opened his locker to put his brush back. "I think the entire building heard that," Nick said, chagrined as he reached down to fish his phone and wallet out of his slacks, and pluck his sunglasses from the shirt pocket.

"But yes and no. Suspended with pay for a week," Nick said, deciding that the deal made didn't need to be made public knowledge if it could be avoided. McHorn grunted again.

"Yeah, that's what we was figurin'. Somethin' like that," McHorn said and scratched the side of his muzzle with a thick finger, "Chiefs a good guy once you get t'know how he works."

Nick nodded and started to reach for his shirt but stopped and briefly debated going to stand in front of one of the big body blowers for a while. If he left things as they were his undercoat would be damp all day, and he hated the muggy, humid feeling it gave him. The idea of using the blowers to air his clothes out also came so instead of getting dressed he just turned and mirrored McHorns lean against the lockers and crossed arms.

"Tell ya what," McHorn said, wagging a finger at him, "That is one badass bunny bro. I went to the Academy with her. About knocked my ass out in the ring."

"Oh!" Nick said, "That was you?" Judy had already told him the story many times, but he figured it was a good opportunity to shift the conversation away from his love life.

McHorn rumbled with a big belly laugh that shook the doors of the lockers. "So you heard about that, eh?" he said.

"Oh, yes indeed," Nick said, "Ursula told us the story. She’s a bit of a celebrity there."

McHorn snorted. "Ol’ Major Thunder Paws, ha! And I don't doubt it," he said, "But she got my respect that day, I tell ya that. She's a damn good cop."

"Yeah, she is," Nick said. A dopey grin spread across his muzzle as he thought about his little 'badass bunny.' "She inspired me to join, after all."

"Oh yeah, that's right!" McHorn said, "All that stuff with Bellwether and shit." The big rhino took his weight off the lockers, the metal creaking and ticking. "Hey, I gotta get goin', but you guys should join us tonight at MacNelly's. Some of us are meetin' up there at seven to hang out. You know where it is?"

"Oh, I do," Nick said, trying not to smirk. MacNelly's was a cop bar. Every precinct had a nearby place that the local cops adopted as their watering hole to hang out at when off duty. In his former life, Nick had given them a wide berth. You didn't want to be hustling or carrying out questionable activities near a place like that if you wanted to remain free to hustle and carry out questionable activities.

"Cool! We've tried to get Hopps to come out before, but she never has. Bit of a workaholic, ya know?" McHorn said, "When she's not on duty, she's got her nose in some fuckin' text book or somethin'. Think maybe you can get her to come?"

Nick had not known Judy was a workaholic, but in retrospect, it didn't surprise him. He hummed. "I think I might be able to do that," he said after thinking about it a few seconds, "But no promises."

McHorn nodded and turned to leave.

"Good enough for me," the rhino said, "Hope to see ya both there!"

"Roger that, big guy!" Nick said and scooped up his clothes as he padded the other way to the big wall mounted blowers.

* * *

Judy luxuriated in the shower more than Nick after she finished her run. The mild tremors in her quads and the pain in her sides were all she needed to justify a few extra minutes.. Her fur wasn’t as dense as Nick’s, meaning she didn’t have to work as hard to get the soap down to her skin. She allowed herself to sit under the hot water and counted the drops that fell from her nose.

She still had a bit of a runner's high, but her energy was quickly draining. What little boost she got from soaking in the hot water dissipated quickly once she stepped into the comparatively cold air of the locker room. She used her paws to squeegee the water off her arms, torso, and legs before trotting out and grabbing a towel to finish the job.

There was still nobody in the locker rooms. The tigress had still been out there running when she left, and nobody else had come in. She flipped the combo dials on her locker and opened the door. She immediately shut it with a bang and wrinkled her nose.

She sighed and leaning forward to rest her forehead against the cool painted metal of the door.

* * *

Nick waited for Judy just outside the rec area, leaning against the wall between the doors of the male and female locker rooms patting down and fussing with his fur. He’d never been a fan of blow dryers; they tended to fluff up his fur and leave it puffed up at odd angles. It took a considerable amount of brushing to tame it. He made a mental note to complain about the supposed shampoo and conditioner combo they had in those showers as it was obviously not up to the job for fox fur.

After about ten minutes, Judy finally pushed her way out of the female locker room. She spotted Nick waiting and gave him a look he could not quite decipher. She didn't stop and just kept walking.

Nick pushed off the wall to fall into step next to Judy. He noticed that she was not wearing her clothes from last night or the workout clothes she had run in. Instead, she had what looked like another exercise outfit on consisting of a white t-shirt and tight blue calf length capri-style spandex leggings. Nick also noted that the leggings were rather form fitting, if the surreptitious glances at her butt were to be believed.

They walked in silence for a few moments, heading to the front of the building. Nick flicked out the aviator sunglasses he had been holding in his paw and settled them on his muzzle. He clasped his paws behind his back, walking lockstep with Judy.

"We did smell," Judy said flatly, keeping her gaze forward.

"Yes, Carrots. Yes we did," Nick said coolly.

They continued to walk in silence. Nick followed her lead as she went to the curving stairs down instead of the elevator.

Judy kept her eyes locked on the revolving doors. She just wanting to get out into the fresh air without anymore knowing looks, winks, or chuckles.

When they finally made it outside, they headed down the steps and stopped. Judy turned her head up to the sky. The morning sun was just starting to climb above the height of the taller buildings. A light breeze blew and held a slight chill as the vagaries of wind brought the occasional gust over from Tundratown. There was also a slight hint of moisture in the air, and looking down the street, she could see a dark line on the horizon.

Nick sniffed the air, nose twitching. "Is it supposed to rain today?" he asked, and Judy shrugged.

"Some early afternoon showers, I think," she said and placed her paws on her head and slid them back and down over her head and ears.

"I'm so hungry," Judy mumbled, "but so tired..."

Nick couldn’t disagree.

The adrenaline of the morning’s rush long gone, hunger gnawed at them the longer they stood there. They stood there in silence, unsure of what they were waiting for. .

"Okay," Judy said finally, "Food." She rubbed her cheeks and looked back and forth, trying to recall what was around the ZPD and open this early. Most places around the precinct were coffee shops and fast food, with the occasional food cart occupying a street corner. There were two actual restaurants in line of sight, but they only opened later once lunch rolled around.

"Uhh…" Nick said, "Well, there's Donut Joe's." Nick nodded across the street, not for the first to think that old Joe has been a genius to open a donut shop across for the ZPD.

Judy made a face. "No," she said firmly, "No coffee shops, no donuts… I want real food."

"Lawn clippings aren't real food," Nick said with a straight face.

Judy rolled her eyes and slapped a paw at his arm. "Jerk," she said, which got a chuckle out of Nick. They both stood there in silence for a few more moments when Judy spoke up.

"There's a place a few blocks away called Honey's, I think," she said, “I’ve never been, but I’ve heard a few other officers mention it. It’s supposed to be pretty good.”

Nick stiffened, which went unnoticed by Judy.

"It's one of those old-timey diners, the night guys love the place," she said and looked up at Nick, who had managed to relax after his initial reaction to the name. "I am going to assume you've heard of it Mister 'I know everybody'?" she asked.

Nick knew Honey’s, and going to the diner was not on his list of priorities for the morning. It was the last place in the city he wanted to go right now.

"Nick?" Judy asked.

Nick blinked down at her, and his mind raced trying to think of what to say. He considered lying and saying he’d heard it wasn’t any good, but lying to Judy was even lower on his list of priorities. The diner was the go-to place where you found sleep-deprived college students cramming in the middle of the night, cops drinking coffee, or drunken revelers who just had to have eggs and pancakes at 2:30 in the morning. The food was plentiful, cheap, and tasty. The perfect combination. Given different circumstances, Nick knew he’d be there every week.

His options were limited. He either pretended nothing was wrong, told Judy was the deal was or... _Or I stop being such a coward,_ he thought. What he had said last night came to his mind about how Judy affected him, and this bolstered his nerve.

Judy's brow furrowed. To her Nick seemed to have frozen in place, his eyes locked on hers. "Nick?" she said again, "are you okay?"

Nick blinked. "I know it," he said, trying to sound nonchalant. He forced a smile. "It's good. I think you'll like it."

Judy looked at him curiously. She didn't know what had just passed, but it wasn't nothing. "Are you sure?" she asked, "You don't seem thrilled about it."

Nick rubbed a paw under his muzzle and sighed. He had the sinking feeling this was going to ruin the day and did not want to have this conversation just yet. _One step at a time,_ he told himself, but that coward in him secretly hoped Honey wouldn’t be in.

"I just have some… history with the place," he eventually said. He took the initiative and gestured down the street as he started to walk, "Let's go."

Judy fell in beside him, looking up at him with concern and suspicion.

"Did you try and hustle them or something?" she asked with narrowed eyes, "Steal some special secret sauce?"

Nick put a paw over his chest. "Why, Officer Hopps, you wound me!" he laughed, "No Carrots, nothing so mundane." He looked at her. "And what do you mean try to hustle? I never tried. I just did, Fluff."

Judy gave a little snort, but Nick continued. "No, it… it's just where my mom worked before…  she, uh, got sick."

Judy's ears fell. "Oh, Nick," she said and reached out a paw to lay it on his arm, "I'm sorry. I didn't know. We can go someplace else." Judy knew Nick's mom was listed as deceased, and there had never been any mention of his father, but she had no other details — she’d never asked. All she knew about his mother was that tiny mention of her in that sky tram ride a year ago. She felt decidedly uncomfortable having evoked this reaction from him, but was intensely curious to know more. She made a conscious decision not to pry. Nick hadn’t badgered her with questions about her family, and  she felt like she’d be overstepping her bounds.

"That's not it," he said, shaking his head, "I mean, it is, but it isn't, too... it’s just sort of complicated, I guess" Nick trailed off. They walked in silence for a short time, neither of them speaking. Nick's thoughts were drawn to the past. He felt that dark pull down into bleak memory. Nick looked down as one of Judy's small paws slide into his. They could not exactly hold paws and walk together due to the difference in height, so instead Judy just pulled his paw and forearm to her chest and hugged it to her body snuggling up close to him as they walked. The mood that had started to creep up on him vanished in an instant to be replaced with just thoughts and feelings about the little rabbit that walked next to him.

"It's okay, Nick," Judy said, "Leave it for another time. Let's find someplace else."

Nick smiled down at her. "Thanks, Carrots, but it's okay. It'll be fine," he said and squeezed her against his side briefly. The tension seemed to dissipate, "It can't rain all the time."

Judy wasn’t sure what that meant, and they continued to walk in silence.

"So," Judy eventually said, "Honey's is good?"

"You've really not been there?" Nick asked, incredulous.

Judy shook her head. "Nope, " she said, shaking her head.

Nick clucked his tongue. "You've been a year and have never been there? Carrots, you really need to get out more," he said shaking his head, "They have fantastic omelets, and this potato cheese casserole that should be a controlled substance."

Judy cocked an eyebrow. "That good?" she asked skeptically.

"Just you wait," Nick said, "Ugh, I'm drooling just thinking about it."

Judy raised both eyebrows then. "Well, can't get much better praise than fox drool," she said. When Nick didn't respond, she looked up at him. He was gazing back down at her with an intense look that she could feel even through the mirrored glass of his aviators. His ears tilted back and his tongue slowly slipped out to lick the right side of his muzzle. Judy sucked in a breath and jerked her gaze away. A new shot of adrenaline coursed through her and the fur from the top to the bottom of her spine felt like it was standing on end.

"Oh my gods, stop that," she said quickly, her body giving a shiver.

Nick chuckled, pleased with himself.

"Sly fox," she said and gave leaned into him, giving him a little push.

"Beautiful bunny," Nick replied back, making the same thrill run through here again for the second time in as many seconds.

Judy groaned and Nick laughed. “You are such a cheeseball, you know that?” she told him.

"Okay, okay," Nick said, holding his other paw up, "I'll behave."

Judy hugged Nick's arm tightly for a second.

"Just for now," she said. Their exchange had pressed a few internal buttons she’d become aware of last night, "I fully intend to have you not behave in the near future."

"Yes, Officer Hopps," Nick said, mimicking the tone he had used last night.

Judy's eyes went wide, and she shoved him again. "Oh my gods! Stop it!" Judy pleaded.

Nick let out a genuine laugh and put his free paw over his eyes. "You’re too easy Carrots," he said and snaked a finger under his aviators to wipe small tears of laughter from the corners of his eyes.

Judy huffed, and failed to suppress a wide smile. Despite everything, she was very happy right here. Right now. _Is this what dating is really like?_ she wondered. She was immensely enjoying the little pleasures like holding Nick's arm, their suggestive banter, and the simple talk about personal things. The banter was especially new, and she was loathe to admit how much she enjoyed it.

Nick's chuckling ebbed. He took a breath. "So," he said, looking down, "McHorn the younger wants us to go to MacNelly's tonight."

Judy cocked her head up at him. "Who, Georgie?" she asked, and Nick nodded.

Judy thought about this for a moment. She had been invited to go out to 'hang with the guys' before, but had never accepted. Her brow furrowed; previously, the prospect of going out drinking wasn’t particularly exciting. That was especially true now that she was confident she’d be teased for her burgeoning, public relationship. With Nick there, though, she figured any comments wouldn’t be too bad. _Not to mention, this would get us out in public, which is what Bogo wanted,_ she thought

"Hmm, okay," she said as she started to nod and shrugged, "Why not? It gets us out like the chief wanted, and they’ve been bugging me about it for ages. It's not like we have anything better to do, anyway."

"Oh, I could think of some better things to do," Nick said. His face remained neutral, but his eyes glanced down at Judy from behind his aviators to gauge her reaction.

Judy's ears started to burn again, but she was immediately distracted at the thought of something else. She jabbed Nick in the ribs, earning a yelp from him.

"Hey!" he complained, looking down at her, "What was that for?"

"Speaking of inappropriate comments!" she said, "Thanks a lot for the help up there with the chief!"

Nick gave a small grin and had the good grace to look a little ashamed. "Yeah. Sorry about that," he said, rubbing the back of his head, "I swear, my muzzle has a mind of its own sometimes."

Judy rolled her eyes and shook her head. "So I’ve noticed."

"It's one of the many reasons you love me," Nick replied matter-of-factly.

Judy snorted, but couldn’t deny it. His blithe, smart-aleck personality was one of the things that drew her to him in the first place. He’d been the most insufferable mammal she’d ever met at the ice cream shop months ago, but she had to admit he’d grown on her . She smiled and hugged his arm tighter once more.

"So, what time tonight?" she asked.

"Seven," Nick replied, "I guess you’ve never been there, either?"

Judy shook her head. "Nope, " she said, "I don't drink, and just haven’t been interested. It all seems… tedious? I guess that’s the word. That’s not even mentioning all the calls I’ve been on for mammals drunk in public."

Nick raised an eyebrow. "Never? Not even a sip?" he asked. “I bet you were a blast to party with in high school.”

Judy stuck her tongue out at him. "Well, I mean, there were a few times, but I can't say I've ever been more than tipsy," she said, and Nick hummed to himself.

"Well, if you don't want to go, we don't have to," he said, the conversation now reversed from where it was just a few minutes prior. “Georgie seemed kind of eager, so I figured I should ask.”

"No, it's okay," Judy said, shaking her head, "It's not like I have to drink if I go, and you're right about needing to get out more. I’ve been here for months, and it’s about time to get to know my fellow officers better."

Nick rolled his eyes. "Carrots, stop being so analytical," he said.

"What?" Judy asked, furrowing her brow.

Nick's paw, clutched against Judy's front, idly rubbed her belly. Judy grabbed his paw with one of hers quickly and squeezed it making him stop. _If he doesn't cut this out,_ she thought, _we are going to have an incident to really give the papers to talk about._

"You still have this textbook way of looking at the world," Nick said, seeming oblivious to what his rubbing had done to her. "It’s not naïve or anything, but… I'm not sure how to put it. You…” Nick rolled his free paw in the air, "You, um, well, you always see four as being the sum of two plus two, but four is also six minus two." Nick rubbed his eyes with his paw, "Ugh, I think I just confused myself with another terrible metaphor, or analogy, or whatever it is."

"Analogy," Judy said, grinning and Nick just rolled his eyes.

Judy looked down at the sidewalk and thought. It was a terrible analogy, but she started to understand what he meant. All her childhood had been spent in zealous pursuit of joining the ZPD, but not every officer was like her.

She recalled her first few days on the force and how she had been treated, even by Nick when they had first met. She’d come to terms with her former naiveté about the department. She was self-aware enough to realize she  tended to default back to her 'book smarts' in unfamiliar situations.

The silence dragged out. Nick snuck a peek down at her, afraid he had upset her. He was just about to say something when Judy spoke up.

"You're right," she said.

"I am?" Nick said in surprise.

Judy nodded. "Yes," she said, "I mean, when you really get down to it, I grew up in a pretty insular place." She made her gait waddle a bit and shrugged. "Bunnyburrow isn’t the biggest hub of action and excitement," she said, "I had my plan, and I stuck to it. I studied, and I trained and never… I don't know, put myself out there?" She shrugged again, "In a lot of ways I'm still a dumb bunny from the country."

Nick smiled and snorted.

"What?" Judy asked.

"You said dumb bunny," Nick snickered.

Judy narrowed her eyes up at him.

"Infuriating fox." She retorted.

Nick winked at her. "You know it Fluff," he said. He  looked up and saw they’d arrived in front of the diner. He stomped down on the anxious feeling that had built with every step of the way. "And here we are… prepare for deliciousness," he said, pulling his sunglasses off and tucking them in the collar of his shirt.

Judy looked at the place with some suspicion, despite the restaurant's reputation. Honey's chrome and tile color scheme made it look like any other greasy spoon. The smell of fatty food cooking wafting from the kitchen caused her stomach to rumble and made up her mind for her without further internal debate. Judy let go of Nick's arm, and he opened the door for her and followed after as she walked in.

The place looked like it belonged fifty years in the past, with a long counter complete with red vinyl-topped stools and a similar motif for the booths that lined the walls. There were areas set aside for smaller mammals, and on one large section of the counter, there was an entire miniature diner complete with kitchen and grill area. The place was busy, too; most of the seats were taken by mammals in everything from suits and ties to construction visibility jackets.

The air was not only filled with the smell of cooking food, but also with the low hum of conversation, silverware clinking on plates, newspapers rustling and the tak-tak-tak of typing on more than few laptop keyboards.

Judy raised her eyebrows and looked up at Nick.

"Trust me," Nick said, catching the look, "The food here is fantastic."

"Nick?" a female voice called. Judy saw Nick tense.

"Wishes and fishes," Nick muttered under his breath and turned, putting a smile on his muzzle.

An older vixen trotted over. Her muzzle a silvery gray that faded into more red. She was dressed in a pink and white waitress outfit that matched the old time décor, energetically chewing gum,, and sported a nametag that read 'Honey' on it in curling red letters. Apparently, this was the diner’s proprietor and namesake.

The vixen slowed to a stop in front of them with her eyes intent on Nick. The gum chewing slowed as well. She looked down at Judy for a moment, then did a double take as recognition hit her. She didn't say anything and turned her attention back to Nick.

Judy looked back and forth between them. Nick's posture had gone stiff, and the vixen was acting like she was facing a mammal she was afraid was about go savage.

"Gotta say, Nicky," she said in a thick country accent, "I’m surprised to see ya."

Nick was steadfastly avoiding Honey's gaze, which Judy thought he seemed unable to meet.

 _Coward_ , a voice hissed at Nick from the back of his mind.

"I know," Nick said curtly, but rallied himself. He cleared his voice and forced himself to meet Honey's eyes. "Look, Honey, we're just here for breakfast. It's already been a long morning, and we're really hungry. Maybe we can talk later, okay?"

Honey stopped chewing her gum and stared back into Nick's eyes intently. She was silent for several long seconds as they looked at each other. She nodded carefully and gave the gum a couple slow chews. "Alright," she said quietly, the gum chewing speeding up, "Alright... ok. I'd like that. I'd like that a whole lot, Sugar."

Judy watched this exchange with a mix of curiosity and alarm. She couldn’t tell if they were on the verge of tears or an argument. _We shouldn’t have come here,_ she told herself, _If I had known this was going to happen..._

At that moment, Honey transformed from the wary and cautious fox Judy had been introduced to into someone else. She blinked her eyes and smiled wide, and her gum chewing resumed in earnest. She opened her arms wide. "Can I at least get a hug?"

Nick forced a brittle smile. He wanted to hug her more than anything, but at the same time he wanted to run right back out the door. _Why did I think this was a good idea again?_ he asked himself, _Oh, right. I didn't._ "Sure," he said and stepped into the embrace somewhat reluctantly.

Judy watched as the two hugged. Nick's arms didn't seem to know what to do for a moment before they slowly wrapped around the vixen.

"Mmmm," Honey hummed and stepped back. She smiled and looked Nick up and down. "Just look at you," she said, "Zootopia's first fox police officer! You’re doin' us foxes proud." she said with evident pride.

Nick took a stranglehold on his emotions. He was relieved when Honey let him go, but his paws lingered on her back, not willing to be released from the embrace.

"Thanks," he said and cleared his throat, "Uh, about that breakfast? I wasn't kidding about being hungry, and I told her about the casserole."

Honey seemed to have forgotten that Judy was there and looked down. She rolled that gum around in her muzzle and nodded at Judy. "You're Judy Hopps, right?"

Judy smiled. She decided if everybody else was going to act like nothing strange was going on that she probably should too. For now.

"Yes, ma'am," she said and held out a paw, "A pleasure to meet you."

Honey shook Judy's smaller paw gently. "Oh, sweetheart," she said, “Pleasure is all mine. It's not often I get celebrities in my little diner! Especially ones who saved the city!"

Judy smiled as they released paws. "Thanks. I don't know about saving the city, though. I was just doing my job, ma'am."

Honey snorted. "That's what heroes always say," she said and gestured as she started walking, "Now, enough yakkin’, c’mon.  Let's get you two seated and some warm food in your bellies."

They followed Honey to a empty booth that was just being wiped down by a portly little pig in the same outfit as Honey.

"Here we go," she said then side as an aside to the pig, "I got these two, Jenny."

Jenny gave Nick and Judy a brief glance but shrugged as she moved away. "Okay, boss," she said as she trotted off to some other customer that was raising a paw to get attention.

Nick and Judy slid into the shiny red seats. Judy found her head barely was above the table height. _Please don't tell me I have to ask for a booster seat_ , she silently grumbled to herself as she looked around for possible controls. They tended to be a standard, if not a necessity, in a city like Zootopia.

"Oh, here sweetheart. Let me get that for you," Honey said and pressed a button on the set into the outward facing side of the seatback as the seat shifted and raised up with the quiet hum of hidden motors.

Judy smiled. "Thank you," she said as the level got to something more reasonable for her.

"My pleasure sweetie. Let me go get you two some menus," Honey said and moved off.

Judy watched the vixen move off for a second before turning a very pointed look at Nick. "Nick," she said in a half whisper, "You mind telling me what the heck is going on here?"

Nick grimaced. "It's nothing, Carrots," he said keeping his own voice low.  He didn't return Judy's gaze. Instead, he fixed on nothing in particular in the far end of the diner.

"Don't give me that!" Judy countered, "If whatever just happened was nothing, then I'm a hippos aunt!"

"Then you're a hippos aunt," Nick said flatly.

"Nick!" Judy hissed, and Nick’s eyes finally flicked down hers.

"Not now. Okay? I admit it’s not nothing, but just… later, please," Nick said.

Judy was about to respond, but Honey had already returned to their table.

"Here we go!" Honey said as she returned and set down a large double-sided laminated menus in front of each of them. She also noticed the look that was still being held between Nick and Judy.

Before things got more awkward, Nick pulled his eyes away and picked up his menu. "Ahh, so, what's good today?" he asked hurriedly.

Honey looked back and forth but went back to pretending that everything was fine. "What you mean what's good? Everything, sugar, like always. I'll give y'all a few minutes to look," she said and pulled out a pen and order pad, "What can I get y'all to drink?"

"Coffee," Nick said then looked to Judy, "What about you, Carrots?"

Judy took her eyes off Nick. "What?" Judy asked then the question registered, "Oh, um, do you have carrot juice?"

Honey nodded. "Sure do, sweetie," the vixen said. Judy thought she sounded like a more genial, country version of her mother.

"Some carrot juice then, please," she said then added, "And some coffee!"

Honey smiled. "Comin' right up," said Honey before walking off.

Judy’s nose wrinkled as Honey headed back to the kitchen. "I take it she's the owner?" she asked Nick, changing tack and nodding at Honey. She wanted some answers now, or at least whatever Nick was willing to give her.

Nick nodded in reply, glad to change the subject at first. “Uh, yeah.The place used to be called Jimmy's. Honey and my-" he said and stopped. _Walked right into it, Wilde,_ he told himself. He cleared his throat, "She saved up money for years and when the old owner decided to retire she bought it from him."

 _So,_ Judy thought _, wasn’t just Honey. it must have been his mom, too. They were saving money together._ Still, Judy was impressed. She wondered how many years saving up that much must have taken.

“Come on, Judy,” Nick pleaded. He saw the gears turning in her head and knew her well enough that she tended to see every mystery as a personal challenge.

Judy’s eyes flicked up to Nick’s at the use of her name. She broke the gaze and sighed. “Fine,” she groused, “But you’re explaining this later, mister. You’re the one who said it would be okay.

 

Nick raised his paws, “I know, I jus-” he said but was cut off as a thought popped into Judy’s mind.

“Oh, my gods,” Judy said quietly, “Nick, did you sleep with her? Is that what this is about?”

Nick blinked at her blankly for several long seconds before his expression turned horrified. “Ew, no!” he said much too loudly, causing several heads to turn their way. He ducked his head and leaned forward. “No, gods, I didn’t sleep with her!” he hissed back in disgust, “That’s like asking if I slept with my mom!”

 

Judy clucked her tongue in a way that she she often heard used against her father by her mother. “Well” she whispered and looked away, now rather embarrassed, “Maybe you have a thing for older vixens! I don’t know! You’re both treating each other like the other is going to explode! It seemed a logical conclusion!”

“Ugh,” Nick said again and shivered and went quiet.

Judy was silent as well but her eyes eventually found Nick’s again and they looked at each other for a long moment.

A smile started to twitch at the corners of Judy’s mouth.

Nick’s face twitched as well as he fought down the urge to laugh. Judy snorted and Nick couldn’t help it and began to snicker.

Judy put a paw over her muzzle and giggled quietly.

Honey returned just then with a tray containing their drinks in addition to two glasses of water. The vixen looked at the still giggling Nick and Judy as she set the drinks down. “Should I give y’all a few minutes?” she asked.

Nick cleared his throat and swallowed. He smiled politely. “Could you, please?”

Honey arched an eyebrow. “Sure, sweetie,” she said and moved off to another table after the drinks were set down.

Nick watched Honey go and relaxed slowly. _Well,_ he thought, _maybe this will turn out alright._ He turned his attention back to Judy.

Judy looked back, still smiling. The need to know what was going on still nagged at her, but she decided it could wait. She sighed and looked down at her paws on the table as one paw fidgeted with the fingers of the other. It was an awkward situation, but what made it worse is when she looked at Nick she didn't see her insufferable partner anymore, she saw someone she loved. _This is why it's dangerous to fraternise,_ she thought, _this is exactly why._

"You okay over there, Carrots?" Nick asked as he reached and pulled his coffee closer, picking up the little containers of cream.

Judy sighed. "I don't know what I'm doing," she said after few seconds, her voice small and sounding uncharacteristically unsure. A sudden nervous feeling having come over her out of nowhere.

"What do you mean you don't know what you're doing?" Nick asked. He used a claw to slice open the tops of the creamers and started dumping one after another into his coffee.

Judy looked up at him. "How many girlfriends have you had in your life?" she asked as she reached out for her juice and took a long drink of it.

Nick blinked and sat forward. He thought for a moment and started muttering names under his breath as he ticked them off on his fingers. "About… eight, I think," he said, "At least ones I would call at least semi-serious, why?"

Judy blinked and looked down at her paws again. "It's just," she said. She shrugged and lookied up at him, "This is weird… is this weird?"

Nick cocked his head at her. "Well," he said slowly, "Let's see… a former con artist fox is now a cop and in love with a rabbit, who also happens to be his partner. He and his partner are suspended the second day of the fox’s job after having a picture of them kissing published in the newspaper. Then, they were chewed out by the chief of police and apparently smelled like they had been at each other all night, "

Nick took a breath and gave Judy a leer that made Judy's ears burn before continuing, "Which is exactly what they had been doing, and now are settling down to a nice breakfast on the first day of a paid vacation. A vacation on which they are supposed to be seen out and about with each other." Nick nodded, "Hmm… Yeah, this definitely fits the definition of weird."

Judy rolled her eyes upwards and tamped down some of the awkwardness she was feeling. "Okay, yes," she said, ducking her head, "But that's not what I'm talking about." She caught herself fidgeting with her paws and made herself stop, clasping them together instead. She took a calming breath before she opened her mouth again. "What I mean is, I've never been in a relationship, and-"

Nick held up a paw, ears suddenly up.

"Wait a minute, are — I know you said you didn’t really have any boyfriends and everything, but are you telling me that last night was your, uh," he paused, "Was I...? But you, um, you kinda knew what you… uhh… the thing you did with your... and.."

Judy blushed so hard she was sure it was showing through more than just the fuzz on the insides of her ears. She closed her eyes and held a paw to silence him, but failed to notice Honey moving their way.

"Nick, I love you, and I know your mouth has a mind of its own, but we are in public, and I've had about as much embarrassment as I can handle for one day," she said.

"Nicholas Wilde, are you datin' a rabbit girl?" Honey said with genuine shock in her voice as she walked up. She had already been watching the two curiously. She saw something in the way they looked at each other when they walked in, and overhearing Judy confirmed it.

Nick cringed, hunching his shoulders. "Great," he muttered. He relaxed and put on a smile.

Judy groaned and didn't bother opening her eyes. She thumped her head down on the table a couple of times.

"Somebody kill me," she said, muffled.

"My, my, my," Honey continued, "I don't think I could be more surprised if the sun winked out."

Nick shrugged. "What can I say, Honey," he said and put on an easy grin, "She threatened to arrest me, and I fell in love with her."

Honey gave a short bark of laughter and just shook her head in disbelief. "Tsk-tsk, little Nicky Wilde. First makin' good and become a police officer, and now datin' a rabbit… what is the world coming to?" Honey said, looking back and forth between the two of them.

Judy still sat with her head down on the cool tabletop.

"Is she okay?" Honey asked Nick in a quiet voice.

"I'm fine!" Judy said with her head still down, "It's just been a really long day.”

Honey lifted an eyebrow at Nick. “Ain’t it still before noon?”

Nick nodded. "Yeah, but we had a rough morning. She's fine," he said, "It's just been a really long day."

"That's what I just said!" Judy complained, head still horizontal on the table.

Honey raised eyebrows. "Well, anyways" she said slowly, "Good for you two! You do make just the cutest couple."

Judy thumped her head on the table once more and sighed. She sat up, smiling wanly up at the vixen.

"Thank you," she said with polite tiredness.

Nobody spoke for a long moment and as the silence started to stretch into awkwardness. Honey rescued them all by pulling out the pad and pen.

"So, you two ready to order?" she asked.

Nick realized hey hadn’t even looked at the menus, although he was sure he didn’t need to.

"I know what I want," he said,then nodded at Judy, "Though she may need a minute."

Judy rubbed her face with one paw. "I believe you said the omelets were good," she said and Nick started to nod then quirked an eyebrow.

"Wait… do rabbits eat eggs?" he asked.

Judy shrugged and yawned. "Mmmph… not often," she said and blinked her tired eyes, "But as long as they're loaded with veggies, I'm game."

Honey smiled. "Alright then, sugar," the vixen said and looked at Nick, "Your old usual, I take it?"

Nick leaned back and nodded, smiling, and Honey turned to Judy. "What you want in yours sweetie?" she asked.

Judy thought for a moment. "Cheddar cheese and every vegetable you got," she said., "But no onions, I hate onions. Oh, and extra spinach!"

Honey jotted down the order on her pad. "You got it sugar. Comes with toast, white or whole wheat?" Honey asked.

The vixen's constant use of 'sweetie' and 'sugar' started to grate on Judy, but she kept her irritation in check. "Whole wheat, please," Judy answered.

"And what side you want? We got that potato casserole Nicky told you about. Also have hash browns, grits, salad, baked beans, steamed vegetable medley, fried crickets, and curly fries," Honey said then leaned in to add in a conspiratorial tone, "I recommend the casserole.”

Judy smiled at Nick. "Nick did give it high praise," she said, and Nick winked at her, "So I guess I'll go with that."

Honey jotted down the rest of the order and smiled. "Well, alright then. I'll leave you two lovebirds to talk," she said and headed back to the kitchen.

Judy blew a breath out, her cheeks puffing up. he constant focus by everyone on her and Nick's relationship was starting to wear very thin.

Nick had begun to tear open some sugar packets and pour them into his coffee. "So," he said, "Where were we?"

Judy started to adulterate her own coffee to creamy and sickly sweet. "I believe you were embarrassing me by commenting on certain… skills I have without any practical experience in such things," she said and tried her best to not let the embarrassment rise again. These were things you just didn't normally discuss in public, at least in her admittedly limited experience.

Nick’s ears went up. “Right!” he said as he tore open another packet of sugar, “So you’re telling me that you, a rabbit, a species known for its… um shall we say-”

 

Judy held up a paw to cut Nick off. “Yes, thank you. I think I get the idea,” she said impatiently as she glanced around surreptitiously to see if anyone was listening, “Contrary to popular belief not all rabbits are sex crazed maniacs, and… um...” Judy’s ears burned as her mind drifted back to last night then to her how most of her family viewed sex. “What I mean to say is we just have a lot of kits is all. It’s a misconception,“ she finished hurriedly.

 

“Uh huh,” Nick said with knowing smirk while dumping yet another packet of sugar into his coffee, “So you’re just form a chaste little rabbit family from Bunnyburrow? How many brothers and sisters did you say you had, again?”

 

Judy’s ears felt as if they were about to burst into flames. “I admit,” she started slowly, avoiding Nick’s grin, “That we may have a more, um, liberal view about such… matters. I’m just one of the few exceptions.” There was a pause as Nick gave her an incredulous, but amused look. “What?” she asked then leaned forward to say in a near whisper, “It’s not as if I don’t… I didn’t…” She stopped and sat back with a groan. “Just.. nevermind!”   

 

Nick was entirely too entertained. _She is so cute when she’s embarrassed,_ he thought. “So,” Nick said as he picked up his spoon, “You were being conservative last night when you-”

 

Judy’s eyes went wide. She waved her paws and shushed him in a manner reminiscent of an old time steam engine.

 

Nick’s shoulders began to shake as he desperately fought not to laugh. “Okay, okay, “ he said, “I give, Fluff, but do go on. Inquiring minds want to know!"

Judy closed her eyes and grunted tiredly. She rubbed paw over her face, but when she saw Nick’s entirely too amused expression a grin tugged at her lips which eventually turning into a little snort of laughter. She smiled and shook her head. She had started to notice how all the little things that Nick did that she often found exasperating in the past now just made him all the more attractive to her. They both started to stir their coffee with a spoon and Judy focused her attention on this task, not looking at Nick.

She cleared her throat and refocused on the point she had been trying to make. "Sooo…" she said, drawing the word out and ducking her head a little as she did, "You were not, technically, the… first, but you were second. As far as I am concerned, you might as well have been my first. My first time..." She thought briefly of that one fumbling night with Billy years ago. She doubted she could blush any harder at this point. She cleared her throat and picked up the coffee to sip at it, but as she brought it to her muzzle said quickly, and quietly, "Er, anyway, we didn’t get far. And I read a lot of romance novels."

Nick cocked his head and cupped a paw around one ear. "I'm sorry," he said, amusement in his voice, "What was that?"

Judy gave him a look, put the coffee cup down, and delicately clasped her paws together. "I said," she began, eyes looking down at a spot in the middle of the table, "I… read a lot of romance novels." She tongued her cheek, still not meeting Nick's gaze. Somehow, admitting that little guilty pleasure of hers was nearly as embarrassing as everything else.

Nick lazily continued to stir his coffee and rested his muzzle on a paw, giving her an appraising look. "Huh," he said, thinking about his little rabbit and how she had been very insistent and definitely in charge the previous night. "All that learned from romance novels, huh? I may have to start reading those to pick up some tips," he said. He put his spoon down and brought the coffee up for a sip. "Do I need to get a pirate outfit? Or a big white puffy shirt?"

Judy let out a little snort of laughter at the idea. Nick dressed up as one of the buff figures from the covers of her trashy novels was funny, but then pictured him as the swashbuckling lead from her favorite series. She almost choked on the air she was breathing He could definitely pull it off;. the year of training at the academy had left him toned and built. Her eyes darted away from eye contact with Nick, unable to look directly at him

Nick caught the look and gave her that slow smile with ears tilted slightly back. "I'll take that as a yes," he said and took another sip of coffee that managed to be lecherous, especially when coupled with the look he was giving her.

Judy made a little heated noise from the back her throat. That look. That damned look he gave her always instantly flipped the dial up to eleven. She broke the gaze and groaned, sitting back with a sigh.

"Anyways!" she said and waved her paw as if to clear the air, "I'm not talking about… that stuff… more the whole dating thing. The point is that you're older and have a lot more experience at this and I… I'm. " She paused to try to gather her thoughts before continuing, "All I know is just… I don't know… guessing and hearsay."

Nick frowned. "I'm thirty-three," Nick said, sounding affronted.

"What?" Judy asked, puzzled.

"I'm thirty-three. I'm not old.".

"I said you were older, not old!" she said.

Nick rolled his eyes and waved a paw at her. "It's a joke, Carrots," he said, "I'll explain it later."

Judy frowned. "Oh, okay," she said, still trying to figure out where the joke was lost on her.

"Judy, relax," he said then, "This isn't a test. This isn't something where you have a list of boxes to check off." Nick shrugged, "It just happens and you have to roll with it." He took another long sip of his coffee and thought for a few seconds "It's… one of those things in life where you think you can plan for it and be ready, but once you're in the middle of it, all bets are off."

Judy thought about this, covering the time by taking a sip of her juice instead of the coffee. She nodded. "I guess," she said, "I just… don't feel in control right now, and that bothers me. You just seem so calm about everything."

Nick gave a humorless little snort. "It's a front, Fluff. Never let them see they get to you, remember?" he asked.

Judy looked up at him, an ear cocked.

"Trust me Carrots, I'm as wound up and unsure of all this as you are, I just hide it better."

 

Behind the practiced, cool persona he presented, his stomach was tied into knots. He assumed he was more uncertain than Judy. His joy from last night was still almost tangible, , but after the morning, with Bogo and Honey, it had been tempered by irrational fear. He thought back to all of his prior failed relationships, and the idea of things with Judy going badly physically pained him. Normally, this would be the time when he’d shift the conversation to something else to avoid any introspection, but this time he either didn’t want to or couldn’t.

 

Not only could he not avoid it, but he actually wanted to tell her. He wanted to tell her everything about himself. For the first time in a very long time, he realized he wanted someone else to know about him. To _really_ know him. A lump built in his throat and that odd tightness in his chest rose again. _What has this rabbit done to me?_

Judy watched him from across the table. She watched his facade slowly fall. It was something she had only seen twice, the first being on the sky tram, and then second being last night. She could see Nick's expression slowly shift as he focused on her. "It… it's like I said last night," he said, his voice quiet with his attention wholly fixated on her now, "You do, I mean, you've done something to me. Things I’ve never told anyone, I want to tell to you."

A tightness built in Judy's chest. She sucked on her bottom lip absently as she listened.

"All the other relationships I've had, it was always me that walked away in the end," Nick continued, "Except in a couple of cases, but when they walked away from me, I was relieved. With you... the thought of that happening again scares me to death." Nick finally broke the intense look he was giving her and gazed down at his plate instead, "I'm scared that I'll screw this up and that I'll make the same mistakes. That I'll just end up hurting you."

Judy didn't know how to respond. Her own emotions were already strained and kept her from giving a coherent response. If she were a psychologist, she might call this  'a breakthrough' or 'progress.' Nick was opening up to her more and more, and the fact it was her he was allowing inside made her want to leap the table to just hug and hold him.

"I…" she started to say, but her thoughts were all jumbled again, and she just stared at Nick.

Nick gave himself a little shake, and she watched that facade of his slam back into place. He smiled, back to his usual sly looking self, except for the shining eyes.

"So!" He said, picking up the coffee for another sip, "Doesn't sound like your parents are big fans of foxes, hmm?"

Judy debated trying to steer the conversation back, wanting to see more of the real Nick she just had a glimpse of, but her better judgment told her to leave it. _One step at a time_ _Jude,_ she thought. She would let him open up to her in his own time. She may not be the savviest rabbit when it came to social interactions, but she knew pressing someone, and especially someone like Nick, was usually met with equal pushback. His words triggered an immediate, visceral reaction from her.

"Oh gods, my parents!" she exclaimed.The mood immediately shifted to exasperation, "I can't believe they did that! How did they get the chief’s external line?" She slumped back against the plush seat, "They are so overprotective and were so against me joining the force." She closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead, "I'm going to have to call them soon or they'll freak out again."

"How did they even find out?" Nick asked, mostly back in control of himself now, at least outwardly, “You said some uncle of yours?” Their call to the chief left him with several questions. It had seemed awful quick for word to spread to Bunnyburrow.

Judy made a disgusted sound and rolled her eyes. "My Uncle Benny," she explained, "He lives just outside the city and is, um,not quite all there, if you get what I mean. He must have gotten the early edition. I don't think he sleeps anymore."

Nick nodded and noticed Honey coming their way with a loaded tray.

"There's one in every family," he said just as Honey sidled up to the table carrying the tray laden with plates and small bowls.

Nick leaned back, and Honey picked up a plate.

"Here we go, you two," the vixen said, setting their plates down on the table.

Judy eyed the large omelet.

Honey put down two small side dish bowls with heaping piles of hash browns, slightly browned and crispy on top.

"There is no way I'm going to eat all this," Judy said, the portion way more than she could possibly put down, "But I'm going to try, because I am starving and have earned this."

"That's fine sugar, but you just wait until you try that casserole," Honey said, and Nick smiled up at her.

"Thanks, Honey," he said, and the vixen smiled back. Judy’s was too distracted by the mountains of food in front of her to notice the strain on their faces.

"You just wave me down if you need anything!" Honey said and headed off to greet a smartly dressed tiger with a briefcase who just entered.

"Now," Nick said as he rolled his silverware out of the napkin it was wrapped in. Judy cocked an eyebrow at him, and he raised up a finger of one paw and his fork with the other. He reached over and scooped up a glob of the casserole from Judy's own bowl and held it up, "Open up."

Judy gave him a shy smile. She hadn’t been fed by someone else since she was a kit, and the small gesture, to her, seemed exactly like the kind of thing couples would do. She leaned forward with her eyes locked on his, and opened her muzzle.

Nick gently inserted the rather hefty forkful of casserole into Judy’s mouth. She closed it and pulled back and rolled the casserole around for a moment before her eyes went wide. There was the fried potato hash brown taste, cheddar cheese, cream cheese, and something else creamy that she could not immediately place. She was pretty sure there was onion in there too, but she was surprised that she didn’t mind. It was simple, but the combination of it all was amazing. She brought a paw up to her muzzle, her eyes wide.

"Mmmrmmph!" she grunted. She had heard of something tasting orgasmic, and thought this definitely qualified for that. She swallowed some of it. "Oh my gods," she mumbled and quickly unwrapped her own silverware. She picked up the fork and loaded it up as she swallowed the rest of the first bite, "This is incredible," she said.

Nick raised his eyebrows and leaned forward on his elbows again and said in a hushed tone, "I know, right?" He scooped up some from his own bowl and took a bite.

"I don't even want the omelet anymore," Judy said around another mouthful, “I just want more of this.”

"What did I tell ya, sweetie?" Honey said as she walked by, leading the tiger in the suit to a table farther back.

Nick made pleased noises himself as he savored the concoction. _I really have missed this stuff._ "I've not had this in forever," he said, watching Honey escort the tiger, "Tried to make it a few times, but it never came out right."

Judy proceeded to quickly demolish the small bowl of casserole. Not only was it delicious, but she was also desperately hungry. All the fat and starch flicked that switch in her brain that said 'Eat this! Eat all of this right now!'

Nick was not far behind as he finished off his own small bowl and licked his fork clean.

Judy realized that was the fork he had fed her with and it made something inside her inwardly squirm in pleasure. The small act of casual intimacy bore a smile on her face. _All these little things,_ she thought and sat back. She let out a contented sigh, feeling much better having some solid food in her.

"Better?" Nick asked, and Judy nodded.

"Much," she said, "But that stuff cannot be good for you."

"Oh, it isn't," Nick said with confidence. “You do not want to see the dietary information for it.”

Judy felt a bit more civilized now. Between the morning's events and then making the questionable choice to go for a run, she realized some of her odd feeling was probably just due to low blood sugar. Between the juice, sweetened coffee, and food, she was starting to feel much better. Lethargy was starting to bloom inside her, and she leaned forward and picked up her fork again to keep eating before fullness found her.

"This also can't be good for me," she said as she watched cheese slowly ooze out of the omelet.

"Eh, I’m sure all those vegetables make up for it," Nick said as he munched on a slice of buttered toast while he cut into his omelet.

Judy snorted and took a bite. It was good, not nearly as good as that casserole, but it was still plenty good. "I'm going to have to come here again," she said between bites of egg and toast.

Nick hummed in agreement around a mouthful and waved his fork out at the diner in general.

"Told you it was good. I used to come here a lot. Even worked here for a little while a long time ago, but-" he said and swallowed. He had been going to say but haven't been here in like six years, but knew that line of conversation would just lead back to the one he was trying to avoid for now. "But," he continued after a brief pause, "It's been a while. You know, with the academy and such."

Judy picked up on this deflection easily enough. Nick had obviously not been here for a much longer time that he made it out to be. Honey's reaction to seeing him reinforced that belief, but she kept her unspoken promise to leave it until later.

Judy cocked an eyebrow. _Time to turn the table,_ she thought. "Let me get this straight, " she said, nibbling on a bit of toast and sounding deliberately skeptical, "You worked? Like work-worked? A real job work?"

“Ya know, rabbit," Nick said and narrowed his eyes as he shook a wedge of omelet on the end of his fork at her ominously, "I may not have reported my taxes, but hustling is work. You saw everything me and Finnick did, and that was just for pawpscicles."

Judy snorted. "Which," she said and pointed back at nick with her own formidable wedge of cooked egg, "By the way, I now realize I should have arrested you for in the first place! In no way was making those even remotely sanitary! I’m sure you broke two dozen food preparation codes!" She made a face. "And you were always eating them! I swear, every time I saw you before you went into the academy, you were eating one those things! How could you?"

Nick rolled his eyes and popped his cooling bit of omelet into his muzzle. He chewed thoughtfully for a moment. "First off," he said, "Those particular roof tiles are constantly scoured by a hot wind from the heat vents." He stabbed another bit of omelet and lifted it up. "Secondly, the snow in that part of Tundratown is new every morning," he said then popped the cheese oozing forkful into this muzzle and waggled his eyebrows at Judy.

"Ick," Judy said with a grimace.

Nick chuckled. "They were fine, " he said, "I never got sick, did I?”

Judy scoffed and Nick chuckled as they settled down to eat silence for a while. After several minutes, Judy set her fork down with still a good half of the omelet on her plate. She sat back, patting her belly.

"Oooh… I declare myself stuffed," she said and yawned, putting a paw over her open muzzle.

Nick ate a couple of more bites and sat back as well with a sigh of the contented. _Food was a good call_ , he thought before catching the yawn from Judy.

"Mmmph, stop that," he said.

Judy shook her head, and another yawn overcame her. "Can't… nnmmmm... help it," she said, "I’m beat."

With food in their stomachs, a heavy lethargy was starting to settle over them both that the coffee could not put a dent in it. Not only had they not gotten much in the way of sleep, but they were hitting the wall from working a full shift and attending the concert the day prior.

Honey paused in her way by. "Can I get you two anything else?" she asked. She spied Nick’s nearly empty coffee cup, "More coffee?"

Nick gave Judy a questioning look and she shook her head. "No, I think we're good," Nick answered and started to fish his wallet out of the pocket of his shorts but Honey stopped him with a wave of a paw.

"Put that away. Your money's no good here, you know that."

 

Nick smiled, a bit sadly Judy thought.

"Thanks, Honey," Nick said up to the vixen without meeting her gaze.

"Now don't you be a stranger, I've... I’ve missed you. You come back soon, you hear? For that talk?" Honey asked.

Nick smiled and nodded, still not looking up. "I'll, uh, do that," he said, but silently debated the honesty of that promise.

Judy watched Honey pad off and how Nick had begun to fidget by starting to tear one of the empty sugar packets into tiny bits. She stifled another sudden yawn. _I am going to get to the bottom of this_ , she thought and pushed her arms and legs out in a stretch, _but not right now._

"So," Nick said, "Your place to get some clothes, then what? We got all day still before MacNelly's."

Judy thought about that while she twisted her torso to the right, using a paw behind her elbow to pull her arm and stretch the muscles and joints.

"Honestly," she said as she twisted the other way, letting out a little grunt, "I didn't think that far ahead." Nick started to scoot out of the seat and Judy followed, "But, you know, I could really use nap so… so my place first then can we just, I don’t know, go back to your place and nap for a bit?" she asked. The shyness of her question wasn’t lost on Nick, and the sincerity of it made his heart skip a beat.

He smiled as they walked towards to door, more than happy at the thought of snuggling up with Judy for a nap.

"I don't see why not. I think this meets our 'being seen' quota for the day," he said, surrounding ‘being seen’ with air quotes.

They had just about reached the entrance, Nick extending an arm to open the door for Judy when Honey called out.

"Nick?" the vixen said, walking up to them.

Nick froze. _I knew it, I knew she wouldn’t keep her muzzle shut and just let me walk out,_ Nick thought. He tensed and turned slowly.

Judy watched Nick's expression change as he turned. His ears cocked forward and his posture was suddenly stiff. He smiled, but it was not the slow easy smile she was so used to. It was jerky and erratic, as if he was forcing each individual muscle to move. The fur on his neck even began to slowly stand up.

Honey could not have missed the fake parody of congeniality Nick was trying to force.

"Nick," Honey said and reached out to rest a paw lightly on his shoulder, "I just wanted… I just wanted to say that your momma would be so proud."

Nick visibly swallowed, that strained smile still on his muzzle. He nodded. "Thanks, Honey," he said in a calm voice, "I'm sure you're right. We’ll talk soon, I promise." He then turned abruptly and walked out the door not waiting for Judy.

Judy blinked and started to follow. She gave one last look up at Honey, but the vixen didn't look at her. Instead, her gaze followed Nick with a sad and sorrowful expression. She pushed the door open and hurried out. Nick had started to walk in the direction of the nearest subway entrance, paws stuffed in the pockets of his shorts. Judy hurried to catch up with him. She didn't say anything and just silently walked next to him, letting him decide if he wanted to explain. . The shift back and forth between calm and tension had been so bizarre, and she wanted to know what the heck had happened between these two. It was obviously a major event in Nick’s life, and not knowing was driving her crazy. There was clearly some deep hurt here. She ached to help him, but she wasn't sure how and decided to just let her company be enough until he was ready. After a time, he did speak.

"You remember what that old wolf said last night?" he asked quietly, his eyes looking down at the sidewalk, "About all the faults and foibles?"

Judy nodded. "Yes," she said voice soft, looking up at him. For the third time in twelve hours she watched his mask drop.

"This is kind of one of those things," he said taking a big breath. He took a paw out his shorts to rub a thumb at the corner one eye then the other. "I'm...ugh, broken, in a lot of ways," he said and paused trying to pull together what he wanted to say. He wanted to say nothing, but he knew that just staying quiet was out of the question with Judy.

"I've had a hard life," he said eventually, "I've done okay for myself for a while now, but I am… I was… still just a hustler, a con artist. Not exactly how I imagined my life would go when I was a kid. Not exactly an easy life. Not what my mom wanted for me."

Judy's ears fell and she looked down at the sidewalk as they continued to walk. She didn't really know much about his past, just the little bits here and there he had shared with her on the rare occasion. Now that she’d been in the city for a year and seen its darker side, she had a better idea what it might have been. What it could have been. While she was confronted with prejudice of being a small bunny, and a doe, at that, when she came here, that was nothing compared to the way society generally treated foxes. It made her think of her parents that day at the train station in Bunnyburrow, when she’d left to come to the city. Even out in the country, foxes were viewed with suspicion and distrust more often than not. Probably more so. Her thoughts were interrupted when Nick sighed suddenly and brought both paws up, fingers rubbing at his eyes.

"This was all a mistake," he said, fatigue and sadness in his voice. He knew he had to face all this eventually. Then again he had been telling himself that for a long time now. _Just why today?_ asked himself.

Judy stumbled as those words registered and she stopped.

Nick walked on a few steps, not noticing.

 

"Wha... what?" she said, her voice cracking.

Nick immediately heard the hurt in Judy's voice and looked down, then turned with his ears up and alert and eyes wide to see Judy standing there as she looked up at him. Nick thought about what he’d said and instantly understood what he’d done. In an instant he was in front of Judy and down on one knee. She stared at him with tears starting to fill her eyes.

"No, no, no! Carrots! Judy!" he said quickly and took her paws in his, looking into her eyes, "Judy, I wasn't talking about us!"

"You... you weren't?" she asked, her voice wavering but hopeful.

 

Nick gave a nervous little laugh and shook his head. "No... no," he said and pulled her paws to his muzzle and kissed the back of each in turn, "I was talking about going to Honey's. I thought it would be okay, but… well, obviously things didn’t go as I had hoped.”

Judy fought to pull herself under control, but it was a battle she ultimately lost. The relief from realizing she’d misunderstood stripped her of what little control she had left. She was tired, the food was making her mind foggy, and emotionally she was at her limit. She blinked rapidly, her face contorting as she let out a little hiccuping sob.

Nick pulled her into an embrace and she wrapped her arms tightly around him and buried her face into his neck fur. She weakly pounded on his back with loosely coiled fists.

"Oh, geez, Carrots, I’m sorry," Nick said and hugged her tightly to him and Judy let out another small sob. He was’t used to a vulnerable Judy Hopps.

"You… you stupid… dumb… fox!" Judy cried into Nick’s fur, but the relief in her voice was evident. It made Nick feel warm and more than a little protective.

"Told you I suck at dating," he said quietly, one paw cradling the back of Judy’s head while the other slowly rubbed her shuddering back. "You bunnies… so emotional."

Judy let out a little half laugh, half sob and squeezed him tighter.

"You going to be okay?" Nick asked and he felt her nod against him, sniffing loudly. She turned her head and rubbed her cheek against his shoulder and slowly pulled herself under control. She blinked and swallowed, sniffling again as she looked across the street.

"Nick…" she said slowly, her voice still high but sounding more normal now.

"Yeah, Carrots?" Nick said.

"There's a giraffe across the street taking pictures of us."

 

 


	6. Reconciliation

"What?!" Nick said and jerked his head around.

The giraffe was standing across the road a small way down from them, casually dressed and holding a camera with a large telephoto lens on it. He was now trying to look as if he was taking pictures of the building or storefronts, but Judy had seen him pointing that lens in their direction.

"Great," Nick said, "Our very own paparazzi. How much you want to bet Stretch over there is the one who took those pictures last night?"

"You think so?" Judy asked, stepping back from the embrace, wiping at her eyes. Her voice sounded normal now, but she was still shaken.

Nick grunted. "That, or the mayor and city hall wasted no time sticking some PR goon on us," he said, "But those pictures in the paper were taken from a distance and from higher up, so it fits."

Judy didn't respond. She hadn't really looked at the newspaper pictures in any great detail. She sniffed one last time and rubbed her eyes.

Nick looked down at her, and his anger toward the photographer grew from a simmer into a roiling boil. _Alright,_ he thought, _enough of this._ He looked back and forth down the street searching for a cab. Luck he'd only had back in his hustling days seemed to be with them as he spotted one coming their way. If it was free or not was another matter, but Nick stepped to the curb and started waving his paw as the cab drew closer.

Judy looked up at him, her eyes puffy and a little bloodshot.

"We can't keep taking cabs, Nick," she said in a tired, disinterested voice, "It's too expensive."

"Don't care," Nick said, looking down at Judy with concern. The cab, thankfully pulled over to the curb, "I need to get you somewhere else."

"What?" Judy asked, puzzled.

Nick pulled the door of the cab open before it had even fully come to a stop and ushered Judy into the back seat.

"Just shush and let me be all male and protective," Nick said. Before ducking into the cab, he looked back at the giraffe who once more had his camera pointed at them again. Nick made a V with two fingers and pointed them at his eyes, then pointed at the giraffe before sliding in next to Judy. She lay against the opposite door. who was subdued and looked ready to fall asleep, and he couldn't blame her. He put a protective arm around her and pulled her close. She snuggled up to him, resting her head on his chest.

"You know where Grand Pangolin Arms apartments are?" Nick said to the cabbie, who turned to look at him. Nick blinked. "Oh, it's you." It was the same cabbie that had dropped them off at the ZPD a couple of hours prior.

Judy looked between the cabbie and Nick and sat up a little. The cabbie stared back at the both of them in the rear view mirror and gave him a tired little smile.

"Me again!" said the old lion with a laugh, "What are the odds, eh? I was still in the area, and yeah, I know the place."

"Good," Nick said and turned his head to look back briefly, seeing what the photographer was doing. He was still standing there, snapping pictures of them in the cab, but didn't seem to be interested in following. "Take us there."

"You got it," the lion said, "You guys okay? Kinda seem a bit out of sorts back there."

Nick spared one more glance back and snorted. "The notoriety is wearing thin right now."

"Gotcha, kid," the lion said. The cab started to move without anyone making further comments.

Nick wasn't sure if the lion knew them because of what was in the paper or from the missing mammals case, but he was grateful that he caught onto the mood and didn't try to engage in any small talk. Nick had a question of his own, though.

"Hey, buddy," he said to the cabbie, who looked at him briefly in the rearview mirror, "Uh, this morning did you, um, smell anything odd?"

The cabbie blinked and raised his eyebrows before patting the side of his muzzle with a finger. "Nah," he said, "I can hardly smell anything these days. Why ya ask?"

"Uh," Nick said, clearing his throat, "It's nothing, just curious."

The cabbie gave Nick a grin and a wink in the mirror Judy didn't to see.

Judy's ears did perk the at the question, but wasn't much interested in the answer. She opted to rest against Nick's side as they traveled the short distance without further conversation. When they arrived a few minutes later, Nick reached into his pocket for his wallet.

"Forget it, kid," the old lion cabbie said, waving him down with a paw, "You gave me three times what that fare was worth this morning. This is on me."

"Thanks," Nick said, and gave the cabbie a grateful smile. Free breakfast and an honest cabby all in one day, he mused, I gotta get in trouble more often. The strangeness of the whole situation was starting to catch up to him. He'd never been generous. It wasn't that he couldn't be generous, but more often than not, it had usually been calculating, like with Finnick. Finnick was a friend, but at times it boiled down to a 'working' relationship with Nick being the mastermind of whatever scheme he was up to at the time, and Finnick being there to help or assist. He shared the profits of those ventures with him, and even gave him a bit more than expected most of the time. Not because Finnick was a friend, though, that was part of it.

No, it was because he knew that little bit of calculated generosity would pay dividends when he needed the big-eared little fox again in the future. Now, here was this cabbie giving them a free lift because Nick had given him a huge tip earlier. Not that Nick would have normally done that — he had just been in a hurry, but the result of that unintentional act was now paying off an unexpected way. _What had Mister Big called it? Paying it forward?_ he thought. He'd heard the phrase before, but only now did it actually click.

Judy yawned and sat up straight. "Thank you, that's very kind," she said.

"Yes sir, thank you," Nick said. Manners were another thing that never hurt and were free as well.

"Don't mention it," the cabbie said, turning to watch them out his open driver side window as the two climbed out of the cab, "Seein' you two makes me feel young again. My first wife, rest her soul, was an antelope. You can imagine the jokes we used to hear," he said with a chuckle.

Well, that kind of gives it away, Nick thought. Must have seen the paper. Or who knows, perhaps he's just a net addict and read it online if what Clawhauser apparently said is true… I would bet money that pudgy ball of fluff is the main reason it's online in the first place.

Nick also thought about the wolf and ewe in the train last night, of McHorn saying "My cousin is datin' a grizzly bear," and how strange it was with all these interspecies couples seeming to come out of the woodwork. _Perhaps not so strange,_ he thought. Interspecies relationships were not that uncommon. Predator-prey relationships were not unheard of either, but they were certainly more rare. There was stigma still stuck to such relationships, so it wasn't something you commented on or drew attention to. Nick guessed since he and Judy had become public, it opened mammals up to talking about it, like it was some secret club they were now members of.

"Oh, yes sir," Nick said to the cabbie, thoughts drawn back to Honey's "Nicholas Wilde are you datin' a rabbit girl?" and again to McHorn "Ain't you guys supposed to be like fire and ice?"

"I certainly can imagine," Nick said with wry humor, "And I'm certain we're in for every fox and rabbit joke in the book."

"Oh you are, trust me," the cabbie said, laughing, "There'll be some jerks too, but screw those guys. As long as you two love each other, that's what counts."

Nick smiled and nodded without comment.

Judy, standing beside Nick, looked up at him fondly, "I think we have that covered," she said.

"Good!" the cabbie said then waved one big paw, "I'll see you kids around."

Nick and Judy waved back, and the cab started to pull away. Nick looked down at Judy and just chuckled, shaking his head.

"Brave new world, Carrots," he said. Judy smiled and grabbed his arm, tugging him to the entrance of the Pangolin Arms. It was rather shabby looking Nick thought, but then his own apartment building didn't look much better from the outside.

"Perhaps so," she said, "But the world better watch out. I got a fox, and I know how to use him!"

Nick barked out a laugh as they climbed the steps.

Judy unlocked and opened the door to her apartment.

Nick's ears fell.

"Carrots, you have got to be kidding me," Nick said as he followed Judy in, looking around. Not that one had to do much looking. "This isn't an apartment," Nick said, "I wouldn't even call it a hole in the wall. That would be an insult to respectable holes everywhere."

"I know! I know!" Judy said. She went to sit on her bed that took up nearly a third of the small space. "I don't see the point in much else right now," she said and stretched her legs out, "I don't need a lot of space, and it lets me save up money for something else."

Nick snorted. "Unless you're getting robbed, you should have saved up enough to put a sizeable down payment on a house, even on our pay," Nick said, closing the door behind him.

The room was not much different from when Judy had first moved in. The desk was now covered with papers and carrot orange sticky-notes, most of it looking police related. There was a small stack of books on the windowsill near the head of her bed and a few more odds and ends in the bowl on the table by the door, but that was it.

Judy sighed and looked around her small room. "It's super cheap, and I didn't bring anything other than what I could stuff in my suitcase with me from Bunnyburrow," she said, "And I'm hardly ever here anyways. I basically just sleep here." Judy flopped back on the bed, her arms spread, with her long ears just pressing up against the wall.

Nick strode to the window and looked out. "My, my, what a lovely view, too," he said, looking at the dull buildings across the way and down to the street below.

Judy grunted, her eyes closed, but made no response other than that.

Nick looked down to the books on the windowsill. He picked up a few, looking at each in turn. 'Death on the Savanna' read one with, of course, a buff lion on the cover in a billowing white shirt and leather pants, and holding up an apparently unconscious and scantily dressed female zebra. Another of the books read 'The Emperor of the Night' in bold, dark, wispy lettering and its cover showing a roguish looking buff panther holding a leash attached to a collar around the neck of a kneeling female deer. The third book was titled 'The Wanton Wench' and portrayed a rather attractive, tall and leggy female jack rabbit on what appeared to be a pirate ship and being eyed by various species of sailors. Nick noticed that said sailors were predators, and were leering at the rabbit hungrily while doing their work.

Nick raised his eyebrows. _I'm starting to sense a pattern here,_ he thought. He went to put the books back when he spotted one that had been under the three he picked up. The cover was plain, some kind of dark texture, but the stylized words stood out - 'Fifty Shades of Prey.' Nick put the other books down and picked that one up with a disgusted noise. He held it up, half turned to Judy, "Really, Carrots?" he said.

Judy cracked a tired eye open and looked over at him. She made a face and slapped her paws down on the bed. "Don't judge me!" she whined, and Nick chuckled, tossing the book down.

Judy made a little groan then and looked over at Nick. She lifted one arm and made grabby motions with her paw. "Can we just nap here? I don't think I can get up again," she said wearily.

Nick moved to the bed and sat down, taking Judy's paw. The bed was on the small side, but the both of them could lay on it together comfortably enough. He didn't complain, either, when he had to snuggle just a bit closer to fit.

"I don't see why not," Nick said and helped Judy up so they could lay properly along its length. They settled, Judy facing the wall and Nick spooning her small form from behind, her head tucked under his muzzle. He wrapped one arm around her, and she made a pleased sound as she wiggled back against him.

Judy yawned and rubbed at her nose with a paw. "So glad Pronk and Bucky are not home," she said sleepily.

"The two obnoxiously loud neighbors?" Nick asked as he nuzzled the top of Judy's head.

Judy made a tired 'mmhmm' and yawned again. "They... mmm… argue constantly," she murmured, "I swear the other day I heard Bucky yell 'You shut your 'bleeping' mouth when you want to talk to me!' How does that even make any sense?"

Nick chuckled. He looked forward to experiencing what Judy termed 'The Pronk and Bucky Show.'

"It takes all kinds," Nick said and shifted a bit, snuggling closer to Judy.

Judy's breathing deepened and slowed, and Nick's eyes started to drift closed. Both of them were asleep within moments.

* * *

Nick was awakened by the sound of thunder. It wasn't close, just a low bass rumble that faintly rattled the thin single glass panes of the window.

The room was dim; the thick clouds had finally turned the sky completely overcast and dark. They were in the same position they had been in when they fell asleep, but Nick's sleep had been filled with disquieting and unsettling dreams. He tried to recall what they were, but the memories were already fading, leaving him with a vague sense of unease. The feeling ebbed, however, when he ducked his head to look at Judy. She was still soundly asleep, mouth half open, and making an adorable little snore with each breath.

Nick lifted his head and looked back at the digital clock on Judy's desk. 2:42 p.m. was displayed in bright green digital numbers. Nick was surprised and lay his head back down. They had slept the better part of six hours and had hardly moved. _Then again,_ he thought, _we did get around three hours of sleep last night._

Nick's mind began to drift. He stared blankly at the rather grungy looking wallpaper and thought about this new strange turn in his life. Less than a day had gone by, and he felt like a different fox. He tried to examine the thoughts and feelings flowing through him, not something he often did. He was not one for self-introspection, it too often lead to dark thoughts that didn't do him or the ones around him any good. He had learned a long time ago to just bury and ignore certain feelings, certain memories. It had worked well enough… until he met a certain rabbit who somehow made these things come to the surface and refuse to be stowed back under.

He sighed. He thought about Honey's and his reaction this morning. It seemed childish now. Of all the mammals in his life, Honey was the one he had wronged the most and through no fault of her own. In fact, just the opposite. She had done a lot for Nick and his mother, right up until the end. He suddenly felt ashamed of how he had treated her, how he had avoided her all these years. _Tomorrow morning,_ he thought, _I'm going to go there and mend that bridge._ That thought led to another memory he had avoided for even longer.

 _Not that far away… what, six... seven blocks?_ He thought and wrestled with the idea, parts of his mind trying to talk him out of it but he knew he had to do it. He debated about waking Judy, having her come with him. He knew he could use the support, but that sounded like a cop out in his head. This was something he needed to do himself.

Slowly and carefully, Nick disengaged himself and sat on the edge of the bed. He started mentally psyching himself up to do this. Part of him said it was a bad time, considering the stressful events of the day, while another part chastised himself for continued cowardice. The shame of that thought is what sealed it. It was either do it now, or lose the nerve for who knows how long.

It wasn't just seeing Honey again that had brought all this on either, although she certainly had been the catalyst. Nick had been thinking about his mother more and more in the days leading up to his graduation. Her absence has stung particularly bad that day. He so badly wanted to turn to her and see that pride in her eyes. Look, mom, look at me! He so badly wanted to re-write those last years.

His eyes swum, his jaw clenched, and his paws balled into fists. He swallowed hard and carefully got up. He sniffed and wiped the back of a paw across his eyes, letting out a shaky breath. He looked down at Judy, still fast asleep, then went to look out the window. It was raining, but not hard. It was more a slow, light drizzle. A 'soaker' as Judy would call it. And of course, it was raining… that almost seemed like an omen if ever there was one. Cliché, but appropriate... he figured getting rained on was the very least he deserved.

He also couldn't just leave and risk Judy waking up with him gone without explanation. He looked around then quietly moved to Judy's desk. He found a non-carrot pen and wrote a quick note on one of the small square pads. He peeled it off, and at first was going to stick it to the door, but grinned as he got a better idea. He slowly leaned over the bed and ever so gently stuck the note to Judy's cheek.

Judy awoke with a jerk and rolled onto her back. She blinked up at the ceiling, disoriented. She tried to sit, then flopped back with a groan with her paws going to her sore stomach and sides. Lying motionless for so long had allowed her abused muscles to stiffen up again. _I do a hundred sit-ups and other core exercises every other day,_ she thought, how can I be this sore? It wasn't as bad as this morning, but it still hurt, and she grimaced at the thought of tomorrow. It was that second day after exercise that was usually the worst for muscle soreness.

Slowly her mind began to fully wake, and she blinked again; something had flicked her flight or fight response and woken her out of a dead sleep. She lifted her head and looked around, realizing Nick was not there.

"Nick?" she asked to the dim, empty room as if he could possibly be hiding somewhere unseen in the cramped apartment. She felt something sticking to her face and brought a paw up, pulling the note off her cheek fur. She turned it around, suddenly nervous of what she might find there.

_Carrots,_

_Something I had to take care of. Back soon._

_Love,_

_Nick_

Relief flooded through Judy. She thought, for just the briefest of moments, that it would have been some kind of note about how it all had been a mistake and that he had to go, or some other equally awful possibility. She looked over at the clock; 2:52 p.m. She had no idea how long he'd been gone. A small ache built in her chest as the small amount of hurt from Nick not waking her grew.

She thought about calling him before she remembered her phone was out of power; she and Nick had both come back to her apartment and collapsed. She hadn't thought to plug it in before they dozed off together. She huffed as she stood up out of the bed and pulled the drained device out of her pocket.

"Crackers," she cursed and went to her 'desk' to fish the charging cable out from under a notebook. She plugged the phone in and the little green 'charging' icon popped up. She then padded to the door and opened it to duck her head out to look up and down the hall. No Nick. Her nose wriggled. She was pretty sure she could smell him in the air, so he couldn't have left more than a few minutes ago. His distinct smell of fox unmistakeable.

She closed the door and thought about what to do. She guessed she could just get her things together to head over to Nick's and wait for him to return, but she knew that waiting would have her literally hopping off, and very possibly through, the thin walls. She walked over to the window and unlatched it. She grunted as she shimmied it back and forth to get the worn wooden frame to reluctantly slide up. It was lightly raining, and off in the distance, she could hear a low rumble of thunder. She looked back and forth down the street.

There were not many animals out, most that were sported umbrellas of various sizes and colors, but she did a double take when her eyes registered that distinctive russet color of Nick's fur. Sure enough, there he was about a block away. She pulled her head in and shut the window. She thought and put paws on her hips, her foot rapidly tapping like it did when she was trying to make a quick decision. It only took a moment for her to make up her mind to follow him.

She grabbed her umbrella under the table left. She paused long enough to lock her door, then quickly made her way down the stairs and outside into the dreary afternoon. She didn't want to waste even a second opening the umbrella as she darted in the direction Nick had been walking. She gritted her teeth as her sore muscles complained, but forced herself to move. She deftly dodged a few pedestrians, some of who turned their heads to follow her rush down the sidewalk.

Finally, she caught sight of Nick when she was within a half block of him, catching glimpses of his red-furred head and tail through the few mammals walking out in the rain. She opened her umbrella and wiped a paw over her head and down her ears, flicking water away as she started to keep pace with Nick. She made sure to keep her eyes on him, ready to dart into the shelter of a storefront or building or even use her umbrella to shield herself in the event he turned around. Nick did not turn around, however, but he did make a left turn onto Herd Street and strode out of view. Judy picked up the pace and peeked around the corner when she got to it.

Nick continued to walk, and Judy thought he looked like his clothes was getting drenched. She figured his fur was doing a good job at staying reasonably dry, but either way, it didn't seem to be bothering him.

Judy let him pull a bit ahead again and moved to resume her tailing. _Where the heck is he going?_ she wondered as she padded after him.

After another block Nick suddenly stopped and backed up a few steps, and Judy ducked into the nearest storefront. He was looking at something in a window, and after almost a full minute, he walked into the store. Judy had no idea what the place was, she could not see any signage from this angle, but she backed into the alcove and waited patiently.

After about five minutes Nick re-emerged and continued walking, stuffing a small plastic bag into a pocket of his shorts. Judy started to follow him again when he ducked into another store right next to the first. She stopped, puzzled, and moved back into the recess she had been standing in. She looked back over her shoulder, making sure she was not drawing the attention of any irate shop owner, but the interior of this particular place was dark and a 'Sorry! We're Closed!' sign was hung on the door. _Good_ , she thought.

She resumed her watch, nose twitching, and waited. Nick was in this new place a bit longer, but when he finally did step back out, he had a small bouquet in one paw. It was too far to see exactly, but there were white, purple, and red flowers in the mix. Judy narrowed her eyes, trying to make them out. She knew her flowers and was pretty sure that purple ones were orchids and the red ones were roses, while the white ones could be any number of things.

Initially, she chided herself for following Nick when he just wanted to pick her up flowers, but he didn't turn back toward her apartment. Instead, he walked right out to the street and started looking back and forth, watching the traffic. Judy ducked back, hoping she wasn't spotted. _Now where is he going?_ she wondered anxiously as she peeked out as Nick started crossing when the traffic opened up enough to allow him to hurry across. She watched from her hiding spot as Nick resumed walking on the other side of the street, but then ducked into the entrance to the park that was right there. It took a moment for Judy to realize what she thought was a park wasn't at all.

She had been so focused on Nick she lost her bearings. The entrance Nick had walked into was flanked by two rough fieldstone pillars, the outsides slightly angled. Bridging the two pillars was a wrought iron arch which held the words "Morningside City Cemetery."

"Oh, Nick," Judy whispered, her ears falling. She debated turning around right there. This seemed like personal business she shouldn't meddle in, and Nick obviously wanted to do this on his own, but something told her she had to follow him. She swallowed hard as her curiosity got the better of her. She closed her umbrella and darted across the street when the traffic opened up again and hurried to the entrance.

The cemetery was lush and had plenty of trees scattered throughout, so if she lost sight of Nick, she might lose him entirely through the confusion of vegetation and tombstones. His red fur stood out against the green and gray as he moved through the cemetery, and she tracked him without much trouble. She was prepared to duck behind the multitude of trees or large headstones should he turn around, but again, he never turned. He just marched on with his head forward.

Other than the two of them, the cemetery was nearly deserted. She saw a portable pavilion set up on one small hill a ways ahead, chairs lined up in neat rows under it. She saw a large mound of dirt as well, the grave still open and a tall figure in a black suit was striding purposefully through the tombstones away from the pavilion. They were too far away in the haze of rain to tell what species they were, but Judy thought they looked disproportionately tall. They might have been an undertaker, Judy thought, or perhaps a funeral director working on the preparations for an imminent funeral. Other than that one solitary figure, though, Judy only saw Nick.

Nick continued through the cemetery until he reached an area that was devoid of tombstones. Instead, there were simple small plaques set into the ground. This was the area for those who didn't have a lot to spend on an expensive plot and equally expensive tombstone.

Nick stopped and looked back and forth, seeming to search. He keyed on something and turned off to the left, walking and looking down at the plaques as he passed, appearing to read each one.

Judy closed the distance between them, walking out of the forest of tombstones, instead of stepping behind trees as she followed.

Nick finally stopped at one marker, staring down at it for long seconds.

Judy perked her ears and stepped out from behind a tree, slowly and quietly closing the distance She suddenly didn't care if she was spotted now.

Nick kneeled on both knees and leaned over, brushing debris from the marker. He gently laid the flowers on the plaque and Judy just barely heard him as he spoke in a voice high and tense with emotion.

"Um, hi, Mom," he said. "Brought you some flowers. I know I haven't exactly talked with you in a while. Uh, sorry about that. I'd say I was busy, but you always could tell when I was lying."

Judy's paw flew to her mouth as she realized just what she was intruding on.

"Things have… whew, things have really changed, Mom. For the better, I mean. No more scams and cons, if you can believe it! In fact, I, er, actually became a cop." Nick barked a single, dry laugh into the drizzling rain. "I know, I know, crazy, right? Me, a police officer. I've got my partner to thank for it, too. I wish you could meet her; I think you'd like her."

Tears welled at the corners of Judy's eyes as Nick continued.

"I was thinking about you when I graduated. It was almost like you were there in the crowd, smiling at me and taking pictures on a disposable camera. You'd probably fuss at me to keep my uniform tidy and crisp. I t-think you'd be really proud of me. But then I think how could you be proud, when I-"

His voice began to break, and he was still for several more moments before continuing. "I-I wasn't there, Mom. How could you be proud of me ever when I couldn't even be there for you. What kind of son am I..."

He was still and quiet for several more long moments before Judy saw raise his arms to the sky, shaking, before bringing them back down and tugging on his ears. She couldn't see, but tears began streaming down his face, masked by the rain..

"Y-You deserved better, Mom. I wasn't there, and I should have been. I'm so sorry…"

Judy's heart broke for him, and she hurried forward as Nick broke down completely in wracking sobs. She reached him and placed a paw on his heaving back. He didn't react or give any indication that he knew she was there. He rocked back and forth as he let his ears go and slid his paw down over his muzzle and neck. He crossed his arms over his chest as if clutching something tightly to himself

"I wasn't there..." he choked out between sobs.

Judy tossed the still closed umbrella to the ground and stepped up next to him. She pulled him to her. He didn't resist. Judy let him lean his head against her chest and cry while she cradled him as best she could.

"I wasn't there," he said again. His body shook with each sob.

His arms dropped limply, and Judy wrapped hers around his head, hugging him to her and holding him while his tears continued to flow. She rested her cheek against the top of his head, between his flattened ears. She did the only thing she could think to do - be there for him. She pressed her head against his while the rain soaked them both down to their bones.


End file.
